Last night, the Broadcast Film Critics Association announced the winners of their annual Critics’ Choice Movie Awards at a gala presentation at the Hollywood Palladium, and The Artist came out on top with four awards, including the top honor of Best Picture while Michel Hazanavicius took the honor as Best Director over veterans like Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese. It also was honored for its score and costumes.
DreamWorks PIctures’ The Help took three honors, including Best Actress to Viola Davis and Supporting Actress to Octavia Spencer, as well as the entire cast for the Best Ensemble Cast.
George Clooney won the award for Best Actor for his role in Alexander Payne’s The Descendants, although in one of the bigger surprises of the night it lost Best Adapted Screenplay to Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin’s work on adapting Moneyball.
Christopher Plummer took Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Mike Mills’ Beginners.
Though nominated in many categories, Steven Spielberg’s War Horse and Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life only received one award each, splitting the Cinematography award.
With the Golden Globes set to announce on Sundays, the Critics Choice Movie Awards have set the bar for the remainder of awards season, giving weight to winners such as Viola Davis and George Clooney to win on Oscar night, as well as giving an edge to Octavia Spencer and Christopher Plummer in the tougher supporting categories. Even though the Academy is made up of industry people rather than critics and journalists, seeing how the winners of these early shows handle themselves while accepting their awards can sometimes make all the difference when filling out their final Oscar ballots. Viola Davis’ emotional speech last night should put her over the top among her peers in SAG and the Academy who already appreciate her hard work, and there is clearly a lot of support for The Artist and The Help right now over all other movies.
You can see the full list of winners below and see photos and other highlights over at CriticsChoice.com.
17TH ANNUAL CRITICS CHOICE MOVIE AWARDS
BEST PICTURE
The Artist
BEST ACTOR
George Clooney The Descendants
BEST ACTRESS
Viola Davis The Help
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Christoper Plummer Beginners
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Octavia Spencer The Help
BEST YOUNG ACTOR/ACTRESS
Thomas Horn Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
BEST ACTING ENSEMBLE
The Help
BEST DIRECTOR
Michel Hazanavicius The Artist
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Midnight in Paris Woody Allen
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Moneyball Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin, Story by Stan Chervin
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
The Tree of Life Emmanuel Lubezki
War Horse Janusz Kaminski
BEST ART DIRECTION
Hugo Production Designer: Dante Ferretti, Set Decorator: Francesca Lo Schiavo
BEST EDITING
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
The Artist Mark Bridges
BEST MAKEUP
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
BEST SOUND
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Rango
BEST ACTION MOVIE
Drive
BEST COMEDY
Bridesmaids
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
A Separation
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
George Harrison: Living in the Material World
BEST SONG
Lifes a Happy Song performed by Jason Segel, Amy Adams and Walter/written by Bret McKenzie The Muppets
BEST SCORE
The Artist Ludovic Bource
JOEL SIEGEL AWARD
Awarded to: Sean Penn
MUSIC + FILM AWARD
Awarded to: Martin Scorsese
