Critics' Choice Movie Awards: "The Artist" wins best picture
(CBS/AP) Updated 10:38 p.m. ET
"The Artist" waltzed off with the most awards at Thursday's 17th Annual Critics' Choice Movie Awards, including the night's top honor.
The black-and-white silent film directed by Michel Hazanavicius led winners with four honors, earning trophies for best picture, score, costume design and director.
Pictures: Critics' Choice Movie Awards red carpet
Pictures: Highlights from the show
Pictures: Stars in the press room
Read more: List of winners
Special section: Awards season
"I don't like to speak so much," Hazanavicius admitted during his best picture acceptance speech, before inviting the actors on stage to celebrate the win.
Southern drama "The Help" also came out a big winner, with best and supporting actress honors for Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer and a best acting ensemble win for the cast.
Other winners in the acting categories included George Clooney as best actor for "The Descendants," Christopher Plummer as best supporting actor for "Beginners," and Thomas Horn as best young actor for "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close."
"The Artist" beat out "Hugo," "The Descendants," "Drive," "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close," "The Help," "Midnight in Paris," "Moneyball," "The Tree of Life" and "War Horse" to win the best picture category. Hazanavicius also earned directing honors for the homage to silent film.
Other winners included "Bridesmaids" as best comedy movie (producer Judd Apatow put the censors to work by dropping a series of F-bombs while accepting the award), "Drive" as best action movie, "Rango" as best animated feature, "A Separation" as best foreign film and "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" for best makeup and best sound.
The evening started off as a face-off between "The Artist" and "Hugo," Martin Scorsese's sweeping 3-D family film, with 11 nominations each. The awards were handed out at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles, in a ceremony hosted by comedians Paul Scheer and Rob Huebel.
Leonardo DiCaprio and Olivia Harrison presented Scorsese with the Critics' Choice Music + Film Award, with a special musical tribute from Bob Dylan. Dylan was the subject of Scorsese's PBS documentary "No Direction Home," and in 1976 the director captured his performance at the Band's "Last Waltz" concert.
Clooney presented Sean Penn with the fifth annual Joel Siegel Award, which the actor and humanitarian accepted via satellite from Haiti. The award, which honors those who understand that celebrity is a platform to do good works for others, pays homage to the late "Good Morning America" film critic Joel Siegel.
BFCA members voted on films that were released in 2011 for Thursday's awards show. Last year, the ceremony served as a predictor of the Academy Award nominations as well as winners, with all four of the acting category winners - Colin Firth, Natalie Portman, Christian Bale and Melissa Leo - accepting awards at the Critics' Choice as well as at the Oscars.
Tell us: What did you think of the Critics' Choice Movie Awards? Did your favorite movie win?
