THE ARTIST

On May 19th this year I wrote a post asking if a black and white, silent, French movie could win an Oscar this year. The answer is clearly YES!. THE ARTIST is the front runner for a Best Picture win. It has been nominated for numerous critics awards and in many critics top 10 of the year. One of the obstacles it might have to win Best Picture is that THE ARTIST does not have a big "behind the scenes" story like SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE that almost went straight to DVD or a story of how the film was never made. The Academy loves the underdogs that have great stories to go along with them. HUGO has Scorsese's first attempt at a children's movie. MONEYBALL took something like 7 years to finally get made. WAR HORSE is a Spielberg epic. THE HELP was the huge Summer sleeper. HARRY POTTER is the most successful franchise ever and I could go on.  I don't think that THE ARTIST'S lack of "story" will effect the outcome. A black and white silent movie in an era of CGI, 3D and loud explosions winning an Oscar is a pretty damn good story.