The Artist dominates Critics’ Choice Awards

The Critics’ Choice Movie Awards kicked of the Hollywood awards season last night, with silent film The Artist picking up a number of the big prizes.

A film that has made a considerable impact since it premièred at Cannes last year, it walked away with the evening’s top award for best picture as well as best score, best costume design and best director for Michel Hazanavicius.

Accepting the honour, Hazanavicius joked in his speech, “I made a silent movie. I don’t like to speak so much.”

The other film to receive notable recognition was Tate Taylor’s adaptation of the 60s’ civil rights movement novel, The Help. It received a number of the key acting accolades with Viola Davis winning best actress, Octavia Spencer winning best supporting actress and the cast being honoured with best acting ensemble.

The other big winners were George Clooney, who received the best actor award for his performance in The Descendants, Christopher Plummer, who won best supporting actor for Beginners and Thomas Horn, who was recognised as best young actor/actress for Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

Despite being nominated for 11 awards, Martin Scorsese’s Hugo only received a single honour, for art direction.

However, Scorsese was also presented with the music and film award given to those who have, “heightened the impact of film through the brilliant use of source and soundtrack.”

Sean Penn was presented with the Joel Siegel award, which honours those who understand that the greatest value of a celebrity is as an enhanced platform to do good works for others. In the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake on January 12^th2010, Penn founded the J/P Haitian Relief Organisation which raised money and awareness following the disaster.

Other winners included Drive for best action, Bridesmaids for best comedy, Rango for best animated feature, Moneyball for best adapted screenplay, The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo for best editing and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 for best sound and makeup.

The CCMA’s have come to be a fairly reliable indicator for Oscar winners, providing an impressive correlation between award winners in previous years. With The Artist and The Help dominating the field, they stand in considerable contention for the top spot next month.

Taken from The Student, published online Fri Jan 13th 2012.