LOS ANGELES – While Hollywood advances its 3-D capabilities and other dazzling digital technology, the Academy Awards could be going silent.
Not since the first Oscar ceremony in 1929 has a silent film walked away with the top prize. But the 84th Oscars feature a potential front-runner with virtually no spoken dialogue in “The Artist,” a loving reproduction of the silent era that has emerged as an early favorite among awards watchers.
“Early favorite” is a critical distinction, given that the Feb. 26 Oscars still are months away. Awards fortunes rise and fall, momentum shifts back and forth, and other awards shows help sort out winners from losers on the long path to the Oscars. At this stage, unlike past years when clear front-runners emerged from the outset, every major Oscar category is up for grabs.
Yet “The Artist,” made by a French filmmaker barely known in Hollywood, looks like a solid contender for one of the best-picture slots alongside a lineup of big studio productions such as Steven Spielberg’s “War Horse,” Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo” and the hit literary adaptation “The Help.”
“To be honest with you, that would be totally alien,” said French actor Jean Dujardin, who stars with Berenice Bejo in filmmaker
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