The 84 Academy Awards were Sunday night and it was an evening of surprises, and some not so surprising winners. Billy Crystal, hosting his ninth Oscar’s, opened with a charming song about the nine films up for Best Picture, as for the increase in the number of films up for the prestigious award Billy said, “nine is the new five.”

The big winners were “Hugo” taking home five of their 11 nominations, including achievement in cinematography and art direction; and “The Artist” taking home five of their 10 nominations including the three most coveted, best picture, best lead actor, and best director

“The Artist” really stole the spotlight from Martin Scorsese’ “Hugo”, which was the front runner for best picture coming into the awards. In addition to the film winning best picture, the director, Michel Hazanvicius, and the leading actor, Jean Dujardin, also won the coveted awards. “The Artist’s” other two victories were in costume design and best original score.

“Hugo” did not have a horrible night, taking home almost half of its nominations, but unfortunately Martin Scorsese fell short of his second Academy award.

Meryl Streep, on the other hand, was awarded her third Oscar and her 17 nomination. She won best actress in a lead role for her portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in “The Iron Lady.” Streep’s acceptance speech was less graceful then her performance saying, “when they called my name, I got this feeling that half of America was saying “oh no…her again,” but whatever.” Rather unbecoming of a three time Oscar recipient and 17 time nominee.

On a brighter note Christopher Plummer won his first Academy Award at the great age of 82, making him the oldest person to win an Academy Award, for his performance in “The Beginners.” While holding his first Oscar statue he said, “you are only two years older than me, where have you been all my life.”

Other notable winners were “The Help’s” Octavia Spencer, for best supporting actress, Woody Allen won best original screen play for “Midnight in Paris” but did not show up to accept the award, and Rango won best animated film.

Other winners were; Iran’s “Separation” won best foreign film, “The Iron Lady” won achievement in make-up, and “Hugo” won achievements in sound editing, sound mixing, and visual effects. Also “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” won achievement in film editing, Undefeated won best documentary, and “The Descendants” won best screen play adaptation.

“The Muppets” “Man or Muppet” won the award for best original song, presented by Will Ferrell and Zack Galifianakis in white tuxedos playing the symbols.

The three “shorts” winners were: “The Shore” won best live action short, “Saving Face” won best short documentary, “The Fantastic Flying Books of Morris Lessmore” won best short documentary.

The President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Tom Sherak gave a speech to all those in attendance and those watching at home where he said the mission of the Academy Awards was to “promote excellence in the motion picture industry…thank you for sharing our love for the movies.