Jean Dujardin Wins Oscar For Best Actor, Proves Silent Films Can Still Work


If you would have told me one year ago that an actor would win the “best actor” category at the 2012 Academy Awards for a silent movie shot I would have said your insane but that’s exactly what happened for Jean Dujardin on Sunday night.

The actors movie The Artist for which he also directed was nominated for 10 Oscar awards and Dujardin managed to pull off the win against an impressive lineup of nominations that included:

George Clooney (“The Descendants”), Brad Pitt (“Moneyball”), Demián Bichir (“A Better Life”) and Gary Oldman (“Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”).

The movie surrounds Hollywood’s silent era in which Dujardin’s character George Valentin plays a movie star who guides a new actress through her first film. Dejardin’s character is opposed to introducing sound in movies which leads to the silent aspect of the modern movie.

The movie does have a bit of American flair with John Goodman portraying Al Zimmer, a big-time studio mogul.

The Oscar win comes only a short time after Dujardin and The Artist managed to pick up wins at the Golden Globes after being nominated in six categories, the most of any Golden Globes nominees. The Artist also managed to sweep the BAFTA’s which led to more speculation that it would have a good showing at the Oscar’s.

Dujardin collaborated with Michel Hazanavicius on the film.

This might be the biggest surprise win since Roberto Benigni climbed over Steven Spielberg’s chair to accept the win for Life is Beautiful.

Are you surprised that Jean Dujardin managed to win an Oscar for a silent film?

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