Manny The Movie Guy /

I am very intrigued by "The Artist." It's a silent film after all (which is pretty cool!), but it's generating enough Oscar buzz that I cannot simply ignore it! But the road to the Oscars is still quite long and tumultuous even though the preeminent Academy Awards vote-getter, the Weinstein company, is behind the Michel Hazanavicius movie. Still, it would be awesome for "The Artist" to score a Best Picture Nomination! The last time a silent film scored a victory was in 1929 with "The Patriot."

The French film (or does language even matter since it's silent?) stars Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo and takes place in Hollywood between 1927 and 1931. It has "A Star is Born" story, if you may, that talks about a relationship between a declining male star and a rising actress. It also talks about the end of the silent film era and the beginning of the talkies.

Dujardin won the Best Actor Award at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival and heck, even the dog actor in the movie, Uggy, won the Palm Dog Award for best performance by a canine! (Trailer below)

Only time will tell if the interesting albeit gimmicky aspect of "The Artist" will hold Academy Award members' interest all the way to Oscar night on Sunday, Feb. 26th.

In the recently concluded Hamptons International Film Festival, "The Artist" won the Audience Award Narrative. Take a look at the complete list of winners below:

And here's the trailer for "The Artist," admit it, you're curious about the movie aren't you?