The critics loudly choose ‘The Artist’
The silent was golden Thursday evening at the 17th annual Critics’ Choice Movie Awards presented by the Broadcast Film Critics Assn. with the black-andwhite ode to silent film “The Artist” winning best picture, best director for Michel Hazanavicius, and costume design and score.
The awards solidified “The Artist” as a likely nominee for multiple major awards at the Oscars, along with “The Descendants” and “The Help.”
The Critics’ Choice Movie Awards, held at the Hollywood Palladium and telecast on cable channel VH1, awarded lead actor to George Clooney for “The Descendants” and lead actress to Viola Davis for “The Help.”
Supporting actor went to 82-year-old Christopher Plummer for “Beginners,” and Octavia Spencer won supporting actress for “The Help.” The cast of “The Help” also won ensemble. Thomas Horn was named best young actor/actress for “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.”
Woody Allen won original screenplay honors for “Midnight in Paris,” and Steve Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin — with Stan Chervin for his story — won adapted screenplay for “Moneyball.”
There was a tie for cinematography, with Emmanuel Lubezki (“The Tree of Life”) and Janusz Kaminski (“War Horse”) splitting the honors. Dante Ferretti won art direction for “Hugo,” and Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall won for editing “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.”
“Rango” took home animated feature, and “Drive” won for action movie. Comedy honors went to “Bridesmaids,” and “A Separation” earned best foreign-language film. “George Harrison: Living in the Material World,” directed by Martin Scorsese, won documentary feature.
“Life’s a Happy Song” from “The Muppets” earned best song. Other technical honors went to “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2,” for make-up and sound, with “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” picking up visual effects.
The Joel Siegel Award went to Sean Penn for his humanitarian efforts on behalf of Haiti, and the Critics’ Choice Music + Film Award went to Scorsese.
Other awards
Earlier Thursday, the five finalists for the USC Libraries Scripter Award were announced as well as the nominees for the Directors Guild of America award for documentary feature film.
The screenwriters of “A Dangerous Method,” “The Descendants,” “Jane Eyre,” “Moneyball” and “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” — as well as the authors of the works each is based on — were named finalists for the 24th annual USC Libraries Scripter Award.
Screenwriter Christopher Hampton is a finalist for “A Dangerous Method,” adapted from the nonfiction book “A Most Dangerous Method: The Story of Jung, Freud and Sabina Spielrein” by John Kerr and the 2002 play “The Talking Cure” by Hampton.
Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash were nominated for “The Descendants” screenplay, adapted from the novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings, an expansion of her short story “The Minor Wars.”
Screenwriter Moira Buffini is a finalist for “Jane Eyre,” an adaptation of the 1847 classic novel by Charlotte Brontë.
Steve Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin and Stan Chevrin are finalists for their “Moneyball” screenplay, adapted from the book “Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game” by Michael Lewis.
Rounding out the finalists are screenwriters Bridget O’connor and Peter Straughan for “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,” adapted from John le Carré’s spy novel of the same name.
The awards will be handed out Feb. 18 at the Times Reference Room of USC’S Edward L. Doheny Jr. Memorial Library.
The DGA nominees for directorial achievement in documentary included Scorsese for “George Harrison: Living in the Material World.” It is his 10th DGA nomination; he won the feature film award five years ago for “The Departed.”
Other nominees are Joe Berlinger & Bruce Sinofsky for “Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory,” Steve James for “The Interrupters,” James Marsh for “Project Nim” and Richard Press for “Bill Cunningham New York.” Press is the only first-time nominee among the five.
The awards will be handed out at the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland on Jan. 28.