娱乐英语新闻:"The Artist" wins in 5 Oscar categories

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- "The Artist," directed by Michel Hazanavicius, won in five categories of the 84th Annual Academy Awards Sunday night.

The silent film won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, as well as the Oscar statuettes for Costume Design and Original Score.

Jean Dujardin, who plays silent film star George Valentin, won the award for Best Actor.

It is the first time in Academy Awards history that a French filmmaker and a French actor won the top directing and acting awards.

"The Artist" is the second silent film to win best picture since "Wings" won the award at the first Oscar ceremony in 1929.

The film is also the first black-and-white movie to win Best Picture since "Schindler's List" in 1994.

The film beat out "The Descendants," "Hugo," "The Help," "Moneyball," "War Horse," "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close," "Midnight in Paris" and "The Tree of Life."

The film has won awards of the Producers Guild of America, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and best motion picture musical or comedy from the Golden Globes.

It was nominated in 10 categories of the Academy Awards.

Meryl Streep, who played in "The Iron Lady," won the Best Actress award. It was the third time Streep won the Oscar statuette. The last time was 29 years ago for lead actress in "Sophie's Choice."

She has been nominated 17 times for the Academy Awards, more than any other performer.

Streep beat out pre-ceremony favorite Viola Davis from "The Help," for her excellent portrayal of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

"When they called my name, I had this feeling I could hear half of America going, 'Oh no, why her again?' But whatever," said the 62-year-old actress in her acceptance speech.

Octavia Spencer and Christopher Plummer won the Best Supporting Actress and Actor for their roles in "The Help" and "The Beginners."

This is Spencer's first-ever nomination. The 39-year-old actress has also won the Screen Actors Guild and Golden Globe awards recently.

Plummber, a veteran character actor, was nominated in 2009 for his supporting role in "The Last Station." But this is his first win of the Academy Awards.

Iranian film "A Separation" won the Best Foreign Language Film. It's the first time a film from Iran won in the category. The only other film from Iran has ever been nominated was "Children of Heaven" in 1998.

The widely-hailed movie was directed by Asghar Farhadi. It has also won the best foreign film at the Golden Globes.

The other nominees of the award were Michael R. Roskam's crime drama "Bullhead" from Belgium; Philippe Falardeau's immigrant substitute teacher tale "Monsieur Lazhar" from Canada; Joseph Cedar's Talmudic scholar saga "Footnote" from Israel; and Agnieszka Holland's World War II drama "In Darkness" from Poland.