A black and white silent French film is the clear favourite to take the Oscar for best picture at the 84th Academy Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday.
The Artist has won most of the major pre-Oscar honours during the awards season.
The Artist has 10 nominations in total and led the recent Producers Guild of America and the Directors Guild of America awards.
The Hollywood Reporter says it has seduced Hollywood.
Nine films are nominated for best picture. Hugo by Martin Scorsese has the most nominations, 11, including best film and director.
The others are: War Horse, Moneyball, The Tree Of Life, Midnight In Paris, The Help, The Descendants, and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.
The final round of voting by the Academy's 5783 members ended on Tuesday.
The BBC reports the Hollywood Boulevard is sealed off outside the Kodak Theatre and the red carpet is in place.
The event will be hosted by Billy Crystal for the ninth time.
