On Sunday, the Oscars will return to its roots.

Not in the terms of the ceremony itself — which was originally a private affair held in a ballroom and consisted of a paltry 15 awards; admission was $5 — but in paying tribute to the birth of the film industry more than 100 years ago.

For the first time since the very first Academy Awards presentation in 1928, a black-and-white silent movie, “The Artist,” is a strong contender to take home multiple Oscars, including best picture.

And its biggest competition is “Hugo,” a state-of-the-art 3D movie that focuses on a film pioneer, complete with actual footage from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The critical and commercial success of “The Artist” is nothing short of a cultural phenomenon. While there have been successful silent movies since “The Jazz Singer” ushered in the era of “talkies” in 1927 — Charlie Chaplin’s “City Lights” and Mel Brooks’ “Silent Movie” immediately come to mind — none so defiantly flew in the face of an industry dominated by computerized special effects, exotic location shoots and a “bigger is better” mentality.

And while the plot — a silent movie star is threatened by the growing popularity of talkies — is familiar (think “Singin’ in the Rain”), it emulates the look and feel of 1920s-era cinema to do so, complete with dialogue cards and a hand-cranked camera effect.

“Hugo,” on the other hand, takes an opposite approach in terms of film style. Director Martin Scorsese merged live action with digital technology to produce one of the best 3D movies to date.

But it’s no less an homage to early filmmaking — Scorsese gives viewers a crash course in silent movie history, from the late 19th-century documentary shorts of the Lumiere Brothers and the first movie to utilize parallel editing (“The Great Train Robbery”) to the first film to spark public cries of indecency. (“The Rice-Irwin Kiss” is just a few seconds of a couple kissing. Yes, I know — scandalous).

And, of course, we get to see both original footage and re-creations of movies created by the film’s co-subject, Georges Melies (played by Ben Kingsley), a magician-turned-director who practically invented the term “special effects” for film.

Both “The Artist” and “Hugo” brilliantly merge modern-day technology and filmmaking techniques with the primitive, scratchy (yet still beautiful) bits of celluloid that spawned not just a new entertainment medium, but changed the definition of “celebrity” and the world in which we live.

So even if neither wins an Oscar on Sunday (a highly unlikely scenario, given that they’re nominated for a combined 21 awards), just the fact that they were nominated shows there’s still a desire for movies that place good writing, acting and directing before a bunch of in-your-face explosions and cartoony special effects that distract from, rather than add to, the moviegoing experience.

And that’s got to count for something.

Deputy Managing Editor Rod Harmon may be contacted at 791-6450 or at:

rharmon@pressherald.com