The 2012 Oscars ceremony proved to be pretty predictable, as the heavily-favored frontrunner The Artist ended up being the big winner of the night. French filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius' critically-beloved homage to classic Hollywood black-and-white silent cinema walked away with five Academy Awards in total, including prizes for Hazanavicius as director and Jean Dujardin as lead actor.

Martin Scorsese's own love letter to the magic of classic filmmaking, the 3D effects-heavy Hugo, tied The Artist with 5 Oscar wins total. That movie still technically "came in second place" as its wins were all in technical categories (Art Direction, Cinematography, etc.) and not for its thematic elements or performance quality.

Host Billy Crystal's "requisite" video parody of the 2012 Best Picture nominees and popular blockbuster titles - along with his tongue-in-cheek musical number - effectively set the tone for an overall traditional (boring?) Oscar night. That's probably very much in line with what Academy heads wanted, as a followup to the unconventional 2011 Oscars show that left many casual moviegoers grumbling and yearning for a return to the style of "classic" Academy Awards ceremonies. For better or for worse, that's exactly what we got this year.

Historically noteworthy wins include that of Meryl Streep for her performance in The Iron Lady, bringing the acclaimed actress that third Oscar which has been eluding her for nearly thirty years now. Similarly, Woody Allen took home the Best Original Screenplay award for his Midnight in Paris script; the 76-year-old New York filmmaker has also been nominated numerous times over the past decades for his writing, but hasn't won since 1987.

iron lady trailer meryl streep

On a side note: Jim Rash's Adapted Screenwriting Oscar victory for The Descendants may not have been as much of a milestone as Streep or Allen's win, but people are already speculating that it could bring extra attention to the struggling cult-favorite comedy TV show Community (which Rash co-stars on). How's that for keeping those hopes of six seasons and a movie alive? Moving on...

Have a look at the complete list of winners for the 84th Academy Awards below:

-

2012 Oscars Winners List

Best Picture - “The Artist” Thomas Langmann, Producer

Directing - “The Artist” Michel Hazanavicius

Actor in a Leading Role - Jean Dujardin in “The Artist”

Actor in a Supporting Role - Christopher Plummer in “Beginners”

Actress in a Leading Role - Meryl Streep in “The Iron Lady”

Actress in a Supporting Role - Octavia Spencer in “The Help”

Writing (Adapted Screenplay) - “The Descendants” Screenplay by Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash

Writing (Original Screenplay) - “Midnight in Paris” Written by Woody Allen

Animated Feature Film - “Rango” Gore Verbinski

Art Direction - “Hugo” Production Design: Dante Ferretti; Set Decoration: Francesca Lo Schiavo

Film Editing - “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall

Cinematography - “Hugo” Robert Richardson

Costume Design - “The Artist” Mark Bridges

Documentary (Feature) - “Undefeated” TJ Martin, Dan Lindsay and Richard Middlemas

Documentary (Short Subject) - “Saving Face” Daniel Junge and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy

Foreign Language Film - “A Separation” Iran

Makeup - “The Iron Lady” Mark Coulier and J. Roy Helland

Music (Original Score) - “The Artist” Ludovic Bource

Music (Original Song) - “Man or Muppet” from “The Muppets” Music and Lyric by Bret McKenzie

Short Film (Animated) - “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore” William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg

Short Film (Live Action) - “The Shore” Terry George and Oorlagh George

Sound Editing - “Hugo” Philip Stockton and Eugene Gearty

Sound Mixing - “Hugo” Tom Fleischman and John Midgley

Visual Effects - “Hugo” Rob Legato, Joss Williams, Ben Grossman and Alex Henning

-

What do you think of this year’s winners? Agree/disagree? (Here's our list of 5 films that were snubbed by this year's Oscars)

Source: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences