Michel Hazanavicius wins best OSCAR for The Artist

Michel Hazanavicius has won the best directing Oscar for black-and-white silent film The Artist.

He thanked the dog Uggie who appears in the movie although he added: "I don't think he cares," BBC News reported.

Meanwhile, Christopher Plummer has become the oldest Oscar winner at 82 for his performance in Beginners.

Plummer was widely tipped to pick up the prize for his portrayal of a father who comes out as a gay man after his wife dies.

He thanked his real-life wife, who he said deserved "the Nobel Peace Prize for coming to my rescue every day".

The Help's Octavia Spencer won the best supporting actress Oscar and gave an emotional acceptance speech.

"Oh my God, thank you... I'm freaking out," she told the audience, after struggling to the stage.

Plummer's fellow nominee in the supporting actor category, Max von Sydow, is also aged 82.

Best adapted screenplay went to Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash for The Descendants, which stars George Clooney.
The first two awards of the night went to Hugo for cinematography and art direction.

Robert Richardson was cinematographer on Martin Scorsese's 3D film and Francesca Lo Schiavo was art director.

And later, the film about an orphan who lives in a train station picked up three Oscars in technical categories.

Best sound editing was won by Philip Stockton and Eugene Gearty.

Hugo's Tom Fleishman and John Midgley won the Oscar for sound mixing and the film also picked up the award for best visual effects, bringing Hugo's total tally so far to five.

Rango won best animation, a first Academy award and nomination for director Gore Verbinski, who said it was "made by grown-ups acting like a bunch of children".

The film features the voice of Johnny Depp, who plays a chameleon.

Best animated short film was The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr Morris Lessmore.

The Oscar for costume design went to Mark Bridges for The Artist, who thanked the Academy "for making a lifelong dream come true".

The best make-up prize went to J Roy Helland and British artist Mark Coulier for The Iron Lady.

Iran's A Separation became the first Iranian film to win an Oscar when Sandra Bullock presented director Asghar Farhadi with best foreign language film.

Set in contemporary Iran, it tells the story of a marriage break-down.

Best film editing went to Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall for Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - the pair also won last year for The Social Network - both films were directed by David Fincher.

The Artist won its second award of the night for best original score, picked up by French composer Ludovic Bource.

The Oscar for best original song was won by Bret Mackenzie for Man or Muppet from the soundtrack to The Muppets.

Best documentary went to Undefeated, a film about an inner city American football team whose fortunes are turned around by a new coach.

The executive producer of the film was rapper Sean 'P Diddy' Combs.