The Artist, Descendants triumph at 2012 Golden Globes

France’s black-and-white silent film The Artist, released in the US through The Weinstein Company, was named best comedy or musical and also earned victories for lead comedy or musical actor Jean Dujardin and composer Ludovic Bource.

The Descendants won the best dramatic feature prize as well as dramatic actor recognition for George Clooney – the third Globe of his career.

In an excellent night for Harvey Weinstein that recalled the veteran campaigner’s supremacy of old, three of the four lead actor winners hailed from his stable. Meryl Streep was named best dramatic actress for The Iron Lady and Michelle Williams prevailed in the musical or comedy category for My Week With Marilyn.

There was plenty of recognition for filmmaking masters as Martin Scorsese was named best director for Hugo, Woody Allen scooped screenplay honours for Midnight In Paris and Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures Of Tintin took the animation prize. Spielberg’s fellow producer Peter Jackson was a close collaborator on Tintin.

Asghar Farhadi’s Iranian drama A Separation won the best foreign language prize and would appear to be a shoo-in for the Oscar were it not for the fact that the category has become deliciously unpredictable at the Academy Awards of late – a rare quality in awards season these days.

Madonna took to the stage to collect the prize for best song in honour of Masterpiece from W.E. As previously announced, Morgan Freeman was chosen to receive the Cecil B DeMille Award.

MOTION PICTURE, DRAMA
**The Descendants
The Help
Hugo
The Ides Of March
Moneyball
War Horse

MOTION PICTURE, COMEDY OR MUSICAL
50/50
**The Artist
Bridesmaids
Carnage
Midnight In Paris
My Week With Marilyn

BEST DIRECTOR, MOTION PICTURE
Woody Allen, Midnight In Paris
George Clooney, The Ides Of March
Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
Alexander Payne, The Descendants
**Martin Scorsese, Hugo

BEST SCREENPLAY
The Artist by Michel Hazanavicius
The Descendants by Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash
The Ides Of March by George Clooney, Grant Heslov and Beau Willimon
**Midnight In Paris by Woody Allen
Moneyball by Aaron Sorkin and Steven Zaillian

ACTOR, DRAMA
**George Clooney, The Descendants
Leonardo DiCaprio, J. Edgar
Michael Fassbender, Shame
Brad Pitt, Moneyball
Ryan Gosling, The Ides Of March

ACTRESS, DRAMA
Glenn Close, Albert Nobbs
Viola Davis, The Help
Rooney Mara, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
**Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady
Tilda Swinton, We Need To Talk About Kevin

ACTOR, COMEDY OR MUSICAL
**Jean Dujardin, The Artist
Brendan Gleeson, The Guard
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, 50/50
Ryan Gosling, Crazy, Stupid, Love.
Owen Wilson, Midnight In Paris

ACTRESS, COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Jodie Foster, Carnage
Charlize Theron, Young Adult
Kristen Wiig, Bridesmaids
**Michelle Williams, My Week With Marilyn
Kate Winslet, Carnage

SUPPORTING ACTOR
Kenneth Branagh, My Week With Marilyn
Albert Brooks, Drive
Jonah Hill, Moneyball
**Christopher Plummer, Beginners
Viggo Mortensen, A Dangerous Method

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Berenice Bejo, The Artist
Jessica Chastain, The Help
Janet McTeer, Albert Nobbs
**Octavia Spencer, The Help
Shailene Woodley, The Descendants

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
The Flowers Of War
In The Land Of Blood And Honey
The Kid With A Bike
**A Separation
The Skin I Live In

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
**The Adventures Of Tintin
Arthur Christmas
Cars 2
Puss In Boots
Rango

ORIGINAL SCORE
**The Artist, Ludovic Bource
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
Hugo, Howard Shore
War Horse, John Williams
W.E., Abel Korzeniowski

ORIGINAL SONG
Albert Nobbs, Lay Your Head Down
Gnomeo And Juliet, Hello Hello
The Help, The Living Proof
Machine Gun Preacher, The Keeper
**W.E., Masterpiece