First, I would like to thank the Academy for once again bringing all aspects of the movie industry together to recognize and honor those who bring magic to the screen and who foster the imaginations of people across the world.

Second, I would like to thank them for giving me the opportunity to prove to my friends and family that when I go on diatribes about movies I actually do know what I’m talking about–by correctly predicting all of the Oscar winners tonight. (Or at least the ones in the categories I was willing to guess on.)

The 84th annual Academy Awards were hosted tonight by Billy Crystal at the Hollywood & Highland Central Theater to recognize the excellence of professionals in the film industry. It was Billy Crystal’s nineth time hosting the Academy Awards and he was overall much more mild and predictable than last year’s hosts, who were criticized for being both overly dramatic and underwhelming. However, he was really much less funny than he attempted to be.

After Crystal’s opening segment, which included parodies of some of the nominated films (with help from George Clooney and Justin Beiber) and a song and dance routine in which he sang about all of the nominees for best picture, the first award for best cinematography was awarded to “Hugo.” In total, “Hugo” won five Academy Awards, including categories such as visual effects and art direction.

Throughout the evening, many of the awards proceeded to go to the anticipated winners, including Octavia Spencer, who won best actress in a supporting role for her work in “The Help,” and Christopher Plummer, who won best actor in a supporting role for “The Beginners.”

As usual, some of the presenters were deemed better than others, with some of the more entertaining being Emma Stone for acting the part of a “newbie” to the Oscars and Robert Downey Jr. for pretending to film a documentary called “The Presenter” while on stage presenting an award.

The award for Best Adapted Screenplay went to “The Descendents” (surprisingly the movie’s only win of the night), while “Midnight in Paris” was awarded Best Original Screenplay. Natalie Portman, last year’s winner of best actress in a leading role, awarded Jean Dujardin the award for best actor in a leading role for “The Artist,” and Colin Firth presented the award for best actress in a leading role to Meryl Streep for “The Iron Lady.” And yes, he did reference “Mamma Mia” while doing so.

The black and white silent film “The Artist” proved that it truly had captured the hearts of the audience by winning five Academy Awards, including those for best director and, as expected, best picture. “The Artist” is the first silent film to win the award for best picture since 1927, and it completely deserved it.