Michel Hazanavicius has won the Oscar for best director at the Academy Award ceremony currently taking place at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. The Artist director was the favourite to take the prize for his silent, black and white film, which is set during Hollywood's 1920s golden age. He has defeated such luminaries as Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen and Terrence Malick.
Before this year Hazanavicius, who was also nominated / won [CHANGE] for his work on The Artist's screenplay and editing, was best known for the French spy spoof movies OSS 117: Lost in Rio and OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies, which featured The Artist's stars Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo.
The Artist sees Dujardin play George Valentin, a silent movie star struggling to come to terms with the arrival of the talkies. Bejo, who is married to Hazanavicius, co-stars as Peppy Miller, whose star is in the ascent as Valentin's fades.
