'The Artist' Wins Big at the Critics Choice Awards

Friday, 13 January 2012 09:01 Written by Jordan DeSaulnier

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'The Artist' Wins Big at the Critics Choice Awards

The awards-speculation winds are blowing up a gale today. The windy months of accolades and formal awarding is just a part of awards season, though, and we're about to move from the nomination phase into the actual business of handing out statues and the like. With most of the major guild nominations announced, the Golden Globes take place this weekend, but the Critics Choice Awards went ahead and got the drop on the most feverish part of this interminable season.

The Critics Choice Awards went down last night, and the recipients largely support the general discussion we've been hearing throughout the last couple of months. Silent film homage The Artist took home prizes for Best Picture and Best Director, so any bookie with a mind to take Oscar bets is probably marking Michel Hazanavicius's film as a definite favorite. George Clooney, meanwhile, won Best Actor for his work in The Descendants and Viola Davis of The Help won Best Actress. She increasingly seems like a sure thing, and her co-star Octavia Spencer could pull out an Oscar win for the same film. Christopher Plummer, meanwhile, continued to march through several months that will see him deservedly winning every Best Supporting Actor prize he can get his hands on.

Here's the full list of winners:

Best Film: The Artist

Best Director - Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist

Best Actor - George Clooney, The Descendants

Best Actress - Viola Davis, The Help

Best Supporting Actor - Christopher Plummer, Beginners

Best Supporting Actress - Octavia Spencer, The Help

Best Adapted Screenplay - Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin, Moneyball

Best Original Screenplay - Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris

Best Cinematography - Tie between War Horse and The Tree of Life

Best Editing - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Best Art Direction - Hugo

Best Makeup - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

Best Sound - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

Best Costume Design - The Artist

Best Score - The Artist

Best Visual Effects - Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Best Song - “Life’s a Happy Song” from The Muppets

Best Animated Feature - Rango

Best Documentary - George Harrison: Living in the Material World

Best Foreign Language Film - A Separation

Best Action Movie - Drive

Best Comedy - Bridesmaids

Best Young Actor/Actress - Thomas Horn, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

Best Acting Ensemble - The Help

Let's all just take a moment and soak in the joy of "Life's a Happy Song" from The Muppets happily winning an award. Also, Rango has a lockdown on animated categories this year. Ordinarily, such prizes go almost by default to the latest Pixar movie, but with Cars 2 standing as the animation studio's first critical misstep, it's Rango's to lose.