Ever since Michel Hazanavicius' black and white silent movie caused a sensation at its world premiere in Cannes, The Artist has gone from quirky retro-wonder to bona fide contender to clear favourite. At the 84th Academy Awards on Sunday night it completed the transformation to victor, claiming a clutch of Oscars that included senior awards for best picture, director and lead actor for Jean Dujardin.
The blue riband triumph in the best picture category was the result of a typically calculated campaign by Harvey Weinstein, the wily old warhorse on the comeback trail after wilderness years of corporate uncertainty, the loss of the Miramax name and the distraction of vanity projects.
As he did last year with The King's Speech, Weinstein's selections dominated the major awards on Sunday: he also distributed The Iron Lady starring Oscar winner Meryl Streep, My Week with Marilyn with nominee Michelle Williams and best documentary winner Undefeated.
Weinstein was invited to see The Artist before its prestigious world premiere slot in Cannes 2011 that the movie's producers had lobbied so hard to secure. He hopped on a plane from New York to Paris and fell in love with the film, snapping up US distribution rights before what would become a rapturous reception on the Croisette.
Freshly minted Academy Award winner Jean Dujardin won Cannes' best actor award and when the industry retired for the lazy summer months, Weinstein hunkered down to formulate the campaign strategy, which surprise surprise boiled down to something like this: maximum exposure for the maximum possible time.
Winning awards is as much about being seen and "working it" as it is about being actually any good. So stars Dujardin and Berenice Bejo, writer-director (and partner to Bejo) Michel Hazanavicius and producer Thomas Langmann (not to mention Uggie the dog) threw themselves into the demands of the circuit, accommodating unctuous press and film society requests and attending the multitude of on-stage Q+As at guild and Academy screenings that are a dime a dozen during autumn/winter in Hollywood.
Awards from US and international critics groups and film bodies began to flow in and The Artist settled into a two-horse race with Alexander Payne's The Descendants, which had established itself rapidly as joint frontrunner following the premiere at the Toronto international film festival last September.
In the following weeks and months these two movies by and large divided the spoils, however there was a sense that The Descendants' best chances lay with Clooney and adapted screenplay (which it won on Sunday), whereas The Artist had emerged as the more robust best picture prospect.
In a year of strong, finely crafted entries, Dujardin and company embodied a joie de vivre that set The Artist apart from the pack. Furthermore the loving homage to Hollywood will have only served to endear the film to the Academy's devoutly nostalgic membership.
January's Golden Globes ceremony did exactly what was required of it and cued up the Oscar finale by splitting the prizes in the comedy/musical and dramatic categories between The Artist/Dujardin and The Descendants/Clooney, respectively.
The Artist enjoyed a huge night at the Baftas on 12 February, when it was anointed best film and earned the best actor trophy for Dujardin. This would have been influential on Oscar voters because the Academy Award polls were not due to close until Feb 21.
What could not have counted towards The Artist's Oscar success but nonetheless provided a delicious run-in for the main event were the Cesars triumph on home ground in Paris on Friday and Saturday's major wins at the Indie Spirit awards in Santa Monica. By that point, with the potent combo of Harvey Weinstein and a sense of destiny behind it, there was to be no stopping The Artist.
