'The Artist' wins in 5 Oscar categories

LOS ANGELES - "The Artist" won in 5 categories of the 84th Annual Academy Awards Sunday night including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor.

The film also got the Oscar statuettes for Costume Design and Original Score.

It is the first time a mostly silent film to win best picture since "Wings" won at the first Oscar ceremony in 1929. And it is also the first black-and-white movie to win best picture since "Schindler's List" in 1994.

The film beat out "The Descendants," "Hugo," "The Help," "Moneyball," "War Horse," "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close," "Midnight in Paris" and "The Tree of Life" to be the Best Picture.

Additionally, it is the first time in Academy Awards history that a French actor and a French filmmaker took the top acting and directing awards.

Michel Hazanavicius won the Best Director and Jean Dujardin, who plays the silent film star George Valentin won the award for Best Actor.

The film also won awards of the Producers Guild of America, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and best motion picture musical or comedy from the Golden Globes.

It was nominated in 10 categories of the Academy Awards.