Welcome to Awards Frenzy’s Live Oscar Blog. Stay tuned as we update you on all the awards as they are presented and offer you our expert analysis. There could be a lot of surprises in store for this evening. The big questions are how well with The Artist do and who will take home the top acting awards. Will it be George Clooney’s night, or will Jean Dujardin ride the Artist wave to an improbable win? It all gets started in a few minutes. Here we go…

5:34 – Isn’t it great to have Billy Crystal back?! A vast improvement from last year’s duo. Hollywood is Back!

5:41 – We suppose there is one good thing about having nine Best Picture nominees. More material for Billy Crystal! Still, on a serious note, movies like Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and War Horse have no business being nominated. Wish the Academy will return to five nominees in the near future.

5:44 – And here’s the first award of the night. Best Cinematography goes to Hugo!!! Wow, this is an upset. We may not be looking at a sweep for The Artist tonight. And this could be the first of many awards for Martin Scorsese’s delightful fantasy film. Awards Frenzy opted to go with The Artist, so we are 0-1

5:46 – A second award for Hugo! Best Art Direction. This one was expected. Dante Ferretti has been honored numerous times, including recently for Sweeney Todd. The sets in Hugo were really amazing and this award is well deserved. Awards Frenzy correctly predicted this one, so we are 1 for 2 now.

5:52 – The first of surely many montages to come. Funny to see Legends of the Fall in there with Forrest Gump and Titanic. Montages like this kind of make us sad thinking how good movies used to be.

5:56 – Best Costume Design goes to The Artist! Yes!! The frontrunner is on the board. We had some doubts about this category since the movie was in black and white, but the costumes were truly spectacular and perfect for its time period. The Hugo streak is over…for now. Awards Frenzy is 2 for 3.

5:59 – The Iron Lady wins for makeup. This was expected, although fantasy films have fared well in previous years. Maybe this is the consolation prize for Meryl Streep. Awards Frenzy is now back on track, 3 out of 4.

6:04 – In retrospect, it really is a shame that The Tree of Life lost to Hugo for cinematography. Goes to show that Academy voters often don’t think too much about what they are voting for. It is possible that the 3D factor helped Hugo, much like it did for Avatar a few years ago. Something to keep in mind for the future.

6:08 – Best Foreign Language film goes to Iran for A Separation! This was expected for most people, although some people thought the Holocaust themed “In Darkness” might have a shot. It’s nice to see the Academy reward a good film despite certain political implications. Awards Frenzy is on a roll. We are now 4 out of 5!

6:13 – Ok, the first big award of the evening. Best Supporting Actress. And it goes to Octavia Spencer! This caps off a remarkable awards season for her. What a great story. That entire cast of The Help was fantastic. Too bad there is no Best Ensemble award at the Oscars. Awards Frenzy nailed this one too, so we are 5 for 6.

6:20 – The speeches are really short tonight. The producers must have really emphasized adherence to the 45 second “shot-clock.” Too bad since it would nice to see more genuine speeches than these silly montages.

6:25 – Here’s the evening’s first major shocker. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo wins Best Editing! This is totally deserved. It was the best edited movie of the year, just like The Social Network was last year. It’s terrific to see it get some recognition. Awards Frenzy went with The Artist again, so we are now 5 out of 7.

6:27 – Best Sound Editing goes to Hugo! That’s three for Hugo. That also means that War Horse is likely to go home empty handed. Hugo is doing really well in the technical categories tonight. Awards Frenzy picked War Horse and now we we are 5 out of 8 and reeling.

6:29 – Hugo takes down another award for Sound Mixing. Four awards for Hugo so far. Come to think of it, Martin Scorsese usually does well in the technical categories. The Aviator won a lot of technical awards back in 2004, including art direction, cinematography, and editing. Awards Frenzy is back on track for the moment, correctly forecasting this award. Overall, we are 6 out of 9. Not great, but not terrible either.

6:38 – This Cirque show is magnificent! They should have it every year. What might even be better is if they set the performance over the music of the films nominated for Best Original Score. Maybe they will still do something like that later in the show.

6:44 – And Documentary Feature goes to Undefeated! Yes! With a title like that, how can it lose? Paradise Lost 3 was the favorite, but Undefeated was the more uplifting and sentimental film and those tend to fare better with the Academy. Awards Frenzy is now 7 out of 10. Yay!

6:47 – Rango takes down Best Animated Feature! We thought Puss in Boots might pull off the upset late, but Rango was the clear frontrunner going in. Still weird that there was no Pixar film in the mix. Awards Frenzy is building momentum again and we are now 8 for 11. Hopefully we can keep it up. By the way, Chris Rock is downright hilarious!

6:57 – Hugo wins yet another award, for visual effects! We thought this should have gone to Rise of the Planet of the Apes, but apparently there may not be anything stopping the Hugo juggernaut tonight. That’s five awards for Hugo now and only one for The Artist. Hmmm. Could there be a monumental upset in the making? Remember, The Artist did not win Best Editing, which is an award that often goes to the Best Picture winner. Awards Frenzy is 8 for 12 now.

7:02 – Well, the first standing ovation of the night. Christopher Plummer wins Best Supporting Actor for the Beginners. What a great way to honor such a sensational actor who has been in so many remarkable films over the years, including this year’s “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.” It really is mindblowing to think that he is only 2 years younger than Oscar. Awards Frenzy got this one right and we are now 9 for 13. More than halfway done now.

7:15 – Finally, The Artist is on the board again! The Artist win Best Original Score. If Hugo had won here, then we really could be looking at a potential Best Picture upset. The music in The Artist was such an essential part of the film. It was like another character. Well deserved. Awards Frenzy is 10 for 14. By the way, it was great to see Uggie. Hope he gets to go on stage later tonight.

7:19 – Man or Muppet takes down Best Original Song. Seriously, how could there be only two nominees? There was actually a good song in Hugo that was not nominated. Awards Frenzy is doing well again. That was our third award in a row again. It’s nice to get the fifty/fifty category correct We are now 11 out of 15. The evening is going by quickly.

7:27 – Best Adapted Screenplay is awarded to The Descendants. This was not a surprise. The Descendants won the Scripter and the WGA and Alexander Payne is a past winner. It is the first and maybe only award for The Descendants. Awards Frenzy went with Moneyball, a script with great dialogue, but we probably should have known The Descendants would win since it was the heavy favorite going in. We are now 11 out of 16.

7:30 – Woody Allen wins Best Original Screenplay for Midnight in Paris! It was a very unique and clever script and we are thrilled he won. Thinking about these categories, we realize now that it is probably more about the story than dialogue. That is probably why The Descendants won. Awards Frenzy got this correct, so we are now 12 out of 17. Still seven awards to go!

7:37 – So Hugo has won five awards and The Artist has won two. No other film has won more than one award. We are now thinking that even if The Artist wins Best Picture, Martin Scorsese may have a shot at Best Director. He is clearly beloved by the Academy and judging by tonight’s results, Hugo is very popular. Could we be looking at a split year? We shall see.

7:43 – Saving Face wins Best Documentary Short Subject. From the clip they showed, looks like a very moving and important film. Awards Frenzy went with The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom, so we are now 13 out of 19.

7:48 – Best Animated Short goes to The Fantastic Flying Books of Morris Lessmore. This was the longest film among the nominees and judging from years past, the longest film often wins. Many people thought Pixar’s “La Luna” might triumph, but there’s been a notable Pixar backlash in the last few years. Awards Frenzy correctly predicted this one, so we are 14 out of 20. Not our best effort, but still pretty respectable in a tough year.

7:53 – Hooray! Michel Hazanavicius wins Best Director for The Artist! What an incredible directing effort, to make a captivating black and white silent film that captured the hearts of audiences everywhere. Awards Frenzy correctly predicted this and we are now 15 out of 21. With this award in the bag, The Artist is looking more and more like a sure thing for Best Picture. It has now won three awards tonight.

8:01 – Only three awards to go. Will it be Clooney or Dujardin? Davis or Streep? The Artist or Hugo? The answers are moments away…

8:04 – They are really running on time tonight. Still a half hour to go and only three awards to go. It helps when they have presenters present two, sometimes even three awards at one time. This is a really beautiful tribute to those who are no longer with us. Rest in Peace Whitney Houston.

8:19 – And Best Actor goes to Jean Dujardin! Incredible! It’s been a long road for him. In the beginning of Oscar season, many assumed that George Clooney would walk away with the Oscar after he won the Broadcast Film Critics Award and the Golden Globe. But once more and more people got around to seeing The Artist, Dujardin had the edge. He truly gave a mesmerizing performance that spanned an unbelievable range of emotions. You really identified with his character all the way through the film. Awards Frenzy picked Dujardin and we are now 16 out of 22. Two more awards to go before we are all done.

8:30 – Wow! Meryl Streep wins Best Actress!! Wow! It’s refreshing to see an upset in one of the biggest categories of the evening. Viola Davis was terrific in “The Help,” but Meryl has not won in 17 years and Academy voters probably thought she was overdue. Also, she had a true lead role in “The Iron Lady,” whereas Davis was part of a true ensemble. We are thrilled to see Streep win, even though we went with Davis. Awards Frenzy is 16 out of 23. One more to go!

8:36 – And there you have it – The Artist takes Best Picture! It’s been a wild ride ever since the Cannes Film Festival when the film first debuted. It was a film that people simply fell in love with. A film that restored people’s faith in movies once again. And in a way, it’s the kind of sweeping romantic film that used to win Oscars. The Artist ends up winning five total Academy Awards, same as Hugo, but of course The Artist takes home the biggest prizes of the night: Best Picture, Director, and Actor. Awards Frenzy correctly predicted The Artist and finishes the evening 17 out of 24.

8:40 – Well, we’re all done. It was a fun night with a few surprises, the biggest of which was Meryl Streep winning Best Actress. The Iron Lady actually was the only non-Artist/Hugo film to win more than one award. Congratulations to all the nominees and winners and thanks to everyone for tuning it once again. We’ll see you all next year. Don’t forget to check back in with us in the next few days to see our Year In Advance predictions for the 2013 Oscars. Good night!