While I was at the AERO Theatre, the Santa Monica venue of the American Cinematheque, for the Golden Globe screening of the freres Dardenne  film “The kid with a bike” (Le gamin au velo) – the bros were there, I’ll write about it – the winners of the 2012 Critics’ Choice Movie Awards were announced at the Hollywood Paladium.

A real triumph for the French film “The Artist” which won the award for best movie plus the prize for best director going to Michel Haznavicius. “I made a silent movie,” French director Hazanavicius joked in English while accepting the award for best picture. “I don’t like to speak so much”. The story is takes place in Hollywood between 1927 and 1932 and focuses on a declining male film star and a rising actress, as silent cinema starts fading away grows and is replaced by sound. “The Artist” which is distributed in the US by Warner,  is now an even more serious contented for the Oscar.

Here is the full list of honors. I have to say that I am particularly happy for the prize for the best foreign language film to the Iranian “A separation”.

BEST PICTURE

The Artist

BEST ACTOR
George Clooney, The Descendants

BEST ACTRESS
Viola Davis, The Help

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Octavia Spencer, The Help

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Christopher Plummer, Beginners

BEST ACTING ENSEMBLE
The Help

BEST COMEDY
Bridesmaids

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Rango

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
A Separation

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin, and Stan Chervin, Moneyball

BEST YOUNG ACTOR/ACTRESS
Thomas Horn, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

HONORARY: MUSIC + FILM AWARD
Martin Scorsese

HONORARY: JOEL SIEGEL AWARD
Sean Penn

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
George Harrison: Living in the Material World

BEST DIRECTOR
Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist