'Searching for Sugar Man' wins Oscar

"Searching for Sugar Man," about a singer whose musical star faded without a trace until he was rediscovered in South Africa, won the best documentary feature Oscar on Sunday.

The film tells the story of Sixto Rodriguez, who made two albums in the early 1970s but then quit music -- and who knows nothing about his fame on another continent.

The documentary was made by first-time director Malik Bendjelloul, who first discovered Rodriguez while travelling for six months in Africa in 2006, and was fascinated by his story.

The award was accepted by Bendjelloul and producer Simon Chinn, who explained why Rodriguez did not attend the Oscars show at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

"He didn't want to take any of the credit himself. That just about says everything about that man and his story that you want to know," Chinn said.

Bendjelloul said he learned that Rodriguez was born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1942, but his musical career ended almost before it began, while all other stars around him were making musical history in Motown.

But while his records failed to take off at home, a bootleg copy somehow made it to South Africa, where it struck a chord with progressive young whites, exasperated with the apartheid system.

His success there was such that, given the fact that the artist himself was not around, bizarre stories began to emerge about him, including one that claimed that he had committed suicide by setting himself alight on stage.

85th Oscar's Winners List:

BEST PICTURE

• "Argo" -- WINNER
• "Beasts of the Southern Wild"
• "Silver Linings Playbook"
• "Zero Dark Thirty"
• "Lincoln"
• "Les Misérables"
• "Life of Pi"
• "Amour"
• "Django Unchained"

BEST ACTOR

• Daniel Day-Lewis, "Lincoln" -- WINNER
• Denzel Washington, "Flight"
• Hugh Jackman, "Les Misérables"
• Bradley Cooper, "Silver Linings Playbook"
• Joaquin Phoenix, "The Master"

BEST ACTRESS

• Jennifer Lawrence, "Silver Linings Playbook" -- WINNER
• Naomi Watts, "The Impossible"
• Jessica Chastain, "Zero Dark Thirty"
• Emmanuelle Riva, "Amour"
• Quvenzhané Wallis, "Beasts of the Southern Wild"

SUPPORTING ACTOR

• Christoph Waltz, "Django Unchained" -- WINNER
• Philip Seymour Hoffman, "The Master"
• Robert De Niro, "Silver Linings Playbook"
• Alan Arkin, "Argo"
• Tommy Lee Jones, "Lincoln"

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

• Anne Hathaway, "Les Misérables" -- WINNER
• Sally Field, "Lincoln"
• Jacki Weaver, "Silver Linings Playbook"
• Helen Hunt, "The Sessions"
• Amy Adams, "The Master"

DIRECTOR

• Ang Lee, "Life of Pi" -- WINNER
• David O. Russell, "Silver Linings Playbook"
• Steven Spielberg, "Lincoln"
• Michael Haneke, "Amour"
• Benh Zeitlin, "Beasts of the Southern Wild"

ANIMATED FEATURE

• "Brave" -- WINNER
• "Frankenweenie"
• "The Pirates! Band of Misfits"
• "Wreck-It Ralph"
• "ParaNorman"

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

• "Amour," Austria -- WINNER
• "No," Chile
• "War Witch," Canada
• "A Royal Affair," Denmark
• "Kon-Tiki," Norway

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

• "Argo," Chris Terrio -- WINNER
• "Beasts of the Southern Wild," Lucy Alibar and Benh Zeitlin
• "Lincoln," Tony Kushner
• "Silver Linings Playbook," David O. Russell
• "Life of Pi," David Magee

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

• "Django Unchained," Quentin Tarantino -- WINNER
• "Flight," John Gatins
• "Zero Dark Thirty," Mark Boal
• "Amour," Michael Haneke
• "Moonrise Kingdom," Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola

ORIGINAL SONG

• "Skyfall" from "Skyfall," music and lyric by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth -- WINNER
• "Before My Time" from "Chasing Ice," music and lyrics by J. Ralph
• "Everybody Needs A Best Friend" from "Ted," music by Walter Murphy and lyric by Seth MacFarlane
• "Pi's Lullaby" from "Life of Pi," music by Mychael Danna and lyric by Bombay Jayashri
• "Suddenly" from "Les Misérables," music by Claude-Michel Schonberg, lyric by Herbert Kretzmer and Alain Boublil

ORIGINAL SCORE

• Mychael Danna, "Life of Pi" -- WINNER
• Dario Marianelli, "Anna Karenina"
• Alexandre Desplat, "Argo"
• John Williams, "Lincoln"
• Thomas Newman, "Skyfall"

VISUAL EFFECTS

• "Life of Pi" -- WINNER
• "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey"

• "Marvel's The Avengers"
  "Prometheus"
  "Snow White and the Huntsman"

MAKE-UP AND HAIRSTYLING

• "Les Misérables" -- WINNER
• "Hitchcock"
• "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey"

CINEMATOGRAPHY

• Claudio Miranda, "Life of Pi" -- WINNER
• Seamus McGarvey, "Anna Karenina"
• Robert Richardson, "Django Unchained"

• Janusz Kaminski, "Lincoln"
  Roger Deakins, "Skyfall"

COSTUME DESIGN

• Jacqueline Durran, "Anna Karenina" -- WINNER
• Paco Delgado, "Les Misérables"
• Joanna Johnston, "Lincoln"

• Eiko Ishioka, "Mirror Mirror"
  Colleen Atwood, "Snow White and the Huntsman"

DOCUMENTARY

• "Searching for Sugar Man" -- WINNER

• "5 Broken Cameras"

• "The Gatekeepers"How to Survive a Plague"

• "The Invisible War"

DOCUMENTARY SHORT

• "Inocente" -- WINNER
• "Kings Point"
• "Mondays at Racine"

• "Open Heart"
  "Redemption"

ANIMATED SHORT

• "Paperman" -- WINNER

• "Adam and Dog"

• "Fresh Guacamole"

• "Head over Heels"

• "Maggie Simpson in "The Longest Daycare"

LIVE ACTION SHORT

• "Curfew" -- WINNER
• "Asad"
• "Buzkashi Boys:

• "Death of a Shadow (Dood van een Schaduw)"

• "Henry"

FILM EDITING

• William Goldenberg, "Argo" -- WINNER

• Tim Squyres, "Life of Pi"

• Michael Kahn, "Lincoln"

• Jay Cassidy and Crispin Struthers, "Silver Linings Playbook"

• Dylan Tichenor and William Goldenberg, "Zero Dark Thirty"

SOUND MIXING

• "Les Misérables" -- WINNER
• "Argo"
• "Life of Pi"

• "Lincoln"

• "Skyfall"

SOUN EDITING - TIE

• "Skyfall" -- WINNER

• "Zero Dark Thirty" -- WINNER

• "Argo"

• "Django Unchained"

• "Life of Pi"

PRODUCTION DESIGN

• "Lincoln" -- WINNER
• "Anna Karenina"
• "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey"
• "Les Misérables"
• "Life of Pi"