by Wilfred Okiche

We present the winners and losers of the 84^th Academy Awards

The Artist

Became the little film that could when it blew away the rest of the competition by winning top honors in the acting, directing and best picture categories. Not bad for a silent film made in black and white and boasting no stars whatsoever.

Harvey Weinstein

The former Miramax boss continued his spectacular come back as his films ‘The Artist’ and ‘The Iron Lady’ completely decimated the opposition. Meryl Streep refers to him as ‘god’ and he may well be the almighty when it comes to awards season.

Meryl Streep

She waited 30 years and her time finally came. America’s greatest actress won her second Best actress Oscar and third overall. Maybe now she can retire quietly no? Knowing her, she’ll be back in two years.

Christopher Plummer

The veteran actor who played Captain Von Trapp in the classic ‘The sound of music’ finally wins one at the ripe old age of 82. You gotta be happy for him

Octavia Spencer

It was almost certain she would win so we did not quite understand her teary moment however we do love that she got a standing ovation for her win. She now joins fellow sisters like Whoopi Goldberg, M’onique and Jennifer Hudson as proud Oscar reciepients. Let us just hope the curse of the supporting actress winner doesn’t catch up with her.

Angelina Jolie

What is left to say? The box-office queen totally stole the show with that humongous slit and a strategic reveal of her leg (Angelina Jolie’s right leg now has an official Twitter account with over 10,000 followers). Partner Brad Pitt might have lost best actor, but he still took home the best trophy of them all. Plus we love that her smile revealed that she knew exactly what she was doing. #Power

Gwyneth Paltrow

It may be a while since she won her Oscar and the critics keep telling her to jettison any hopes of a singing career but when Ms Paltrow stepped out on the red carpet on Oscar night, the verdict was unanimous. She looked ravishing in her Tom Ford number and the end result was her appearance on every best dressed list from Time to The Huffington Post.

Losers

Billy Crystal

As host of the telecast, the night was his to lose but as it turned out, the 9^th time is not quite the charm. His jokes failed to fly and his overall performance was shredded by the critics, at least the band found some of his material funny.

Eddie Murphy and Brett Ratner

Billy Crystal might have flopped but Brett Ratner and his leading man, Eddie Murphy who were supposed to produce and host respectively still look bad for the anti-gay slur that resulted in Ratner getting fired and Murphy dropping out.

Viola Davis

They raised her up only to let her down at the crucial moment. After being widely considered as frontrunner for best actress for her touching portrayal in ‘The Help’, she lost gallantly to the greatest of them all, Meryl Streep.

George Clooney

America loves George Clooney and so do the Oscars! Only this year, there was none of that going round. He was pipped for Best actor by unknown Jean Dujardin. At least he still looks great for his age.

Ryan Gosling

This was supposed to be the year of Ryan Gosling, only it didn’t quite happen. He was surprisingly MIA this awards season and emerged the biggest snub of the Oscars. We still cannot get over the fact that   he wasn’t even nominated.

Sasha Baron Cohen

After initial misgivings from the Academy, Sasha or Borat or whatever he is known as these days was finally allowed to bring his dictator act to the show. He began on a disastrous note by spilling what he claimed were ashes of the late Korean leader, Kim Jong II on a flabbergasted Ryan Seacrest and was promptly hustled off by security.

Piers Morgan

The talk show host has an opinion about everything under the sun so it wasn’t surprising to see him tweet about his hopeful winners for the night. Apart from Octavia Spencer and ‘The Artist’ for best picture (but we all knew that) he was proved wrong. And he suggested to Meryl Streep that her non-appearance on his show would cost her the Oscar. Now who’ laughing?

War Horse

Steven Spielberg is no stranger to the Oscars, so we were quite surprised to see that his film received no love from the academy voters. ‘War Horse’ received 6nods including best picture but lost in all the categories.

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