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Hollywood stars arrive at the 84th Oscars ceremony Billy Crystal opens Oscars ceremony with film montage
(40 minutes later)
Hollywood stars are gathering on the red carpet for this year's Academy Awards ceremony, the US film industry's biggest night of the year. Billy Crystal has begun hosting the 84th Academy Awards ceremony at the Kodak theatre in Los Angeles.
Black-and-white silent movie The Artist, which has 10 nominations, is bookies' favourite to win best picture. Morgan Freeman introduced the evening before a comic video was shown of George Clooney waking up Crystal with a kiss - in a parody of his nominated film The Descendants.
But Martin Scorsese's 3D family film Hugo leads the race with 11. Crystal joked: "This is my ninth time - just call me War Horse."
Nominees including Jessica Chastain and Christopher Plummer have arrived on the red carpet. The ceremony begins at 0130 GMT (1730 Pacific time). The first two awards of the night went to Hugo for cinematography and art direction.
Other arrivals include best actress nominees Berenice Bejo and Viola Davis, best supporting actress nominees Melissa McCarthy and Octavia Spencer and Penelope Ann Miller - who also co-stars in The Artist as the wife of Jean Dujardin's lead character. Robert Richardson was the cinematographer on Martin Scorsese's Hugo and Francesca Lo Schiavo was the art director.
British comedy actor Sacha Baron Cohen turned up on the red carpet dressed in a white military uniform and sporting a beard and sunglasses to promote his upcoming film The Dictator. Morgan Freeman said: ""All of us are mesmerised by the magic of the movies. This magnificent event allows us to celebrate the present and look back at its magnificent past".
He arrived holding an urn he jokingly claimed contained the ashes of Kim Jong Il, the late leader of North Korea. The Oscar for costume design went to Mark Bridges for The Artist, who thanked the Academy "for making a lifelong dream come true".
Cohen then tipped the container on to American Idol host Ryan Seacrest. Best make-up went to J Roy Helland and British artist Mark Coulier for The Iron Lady.
Supporting actor nominee Jonah Hill, in the running for Moneyball, said: "I guess the Oscars isn't the best place to sell your movie. I think he's a funny guy, though." Earlier on the red carpet, British comedy actor Sacha Baron Cohen turned up dressed in a white military uniform and sporting a beard and sunglasses, promoting his upcoming film The Dictator.
Comedian Billy Crystal is hosting the 84th Academy Awards for the ninth time, having stepped in after comedian and actor Eddie Murphy pulled out in November. Cohen arrived holding an urn he jokingly claimed contained the ashes of Kim Jong Il, the late leader of North Korea.
It is Crystal's first time back hosting since 2004 and Oscar-watchers are predicting plenty of silent film gags and jibes about the recent legal wrangle over the Kodak-branded theatre where the ceremony is held. Cohen then tipped the container on to American Idol host Ryan Seacrest
Crystal himself is giving nothing away, but tweeted last week: "First rehearsal: They said keep it 'fresh and new'. This from an industry that just brought us Fast & Furious 5 and Harry Potter 7, part 2." Nominees on the red carpet included Melissa McCarthy, Jean Dujardin, Berenice Bejo, Michel Hazanavicius, Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer.
The final round of voting by the Academy's 5,783 members ended on Tuesday. Outside the venue, a section of Hollywood Boulevard has been sealed off. Black-and-white silent movie The Artist is hotly tipped to win the coveted best picture Oscar.
Industry newspaper The Hollywood Reporter says The Artist's predicted win for best picture follows its victory in the two strongest "Oscar bellwethers", the Producers Guild of America and the Directors Guild of America.
"This French-financed, Hollywood-shot, Harvey Weinstein-distributed love letter to the movies has gone on to seduce Hollywood since being unveiled at Cannes in May.
"It is now poised to become the first silent film in 83 years and the first black-and-white film in 18 years to win the top Oscar."
Close race
A change in the Academy voting rules means that there are nine films in the best picture race this year.
Alongside The Artist and Hugo, those in the running include War Horse, Moneyball, The Tree Of Life, Midnight In Paris, The Help, The Descendants, and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.
George Clooney and Brad Pitt are both up for best actor, and Meryl Streep has her 17th Oscar nomination for her portrayal of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady.
Streep has won two Oscars - best supporting actress for 1979's Kramer vs Kramer and best actress for 1982's Sophie's Choice - but has been overlooked on her last 12 attempts.
Oscar pundits predict a close race between Streep and Viola Davies, for her performance as maid Aibileen Clark in civil rights drama The Help.
In the supporting actress category, The Help's Octavia Spencer is the frontrunner, ahead of fellow cast member Jessica Chastain, and Melissa McCarthy and Britain's Janet McTeer - for Bridesmaids and Albert Nobbs respectively.
Unusually, this year's race for best supporting actor boasts two octogenarians: Christopher Plummer for Beginners and Max von Sydow for Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.
Both are 82, and if either win they would become the oldest recipient of an acting award. The record is currently held by Jessica Tandy, who won for Driving Miss Daisy, aged 80.
Plummer is widely predicted to take the statuette for his role as an elderly father who comes out as gay after his wife dies.
The others in the category are Nick Nolte, for Warrior; and Brit Kenneth Branagh, for My Week with Marilyn.
Nostalgic choice
Things are less clear-cut in the race for best actor.
Hollywood heart-throbs Clooney and Pitt face a stiff challenge from The Artist's Jean Dujardin, who beat them - and British star Gary Oldman - at the Baftas earlier this month.
It's Oldman's first Oscar nomination, which recognises his quietly powerful performance as mole-catcher George Smiley in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
The outsider in this category is Mexican actor Demian Bichir for his role as a Los Angeles gardener, struggling to keep his son out of gang culture, in A Better Life.
Earlier this week, an investigation by the Los Angeles Times revealed that the Academy demographic is much less diverse than the movie-going public.
Oscar voters, it said, are nearly 94% Caucasian and 77% male. They have a median age of 62, and under 50s constitute just 14% of the membership. All of which, puts The Artist in pole position.
Mike Goodridge, editor of Screen International, told the BBC: "You're looking at a group that are going to vote for The King's Speech over The Social Network, for The Hurt Locker over Avatar, and this year it's going to go for this portrait of days gone by."