The Oscar Warrior: Critics' Choice Awards Confirm Frontrunners

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