17th Annual Critics' Choice Movie Award Winners

While the award show itself was painful to sit through to say the least, the 17th Annual Critics' Choice Movie Awards did a fine job of attempting to exactly mirror who we'll see winning at the Oscars come February. This year they'll probably do an even better job than the Golden Globes this Sunday which gets a hindrance due to its, for once, distracting Drama/Comedy division of awards.

Although "The Artist" began its fast track to Oscar gold with wins for Best Director and Picture, in my opinion the big winner of the night was definitely "The Help" with wins for Octavia Spencer in Best Supporting Actress, Viola Davis in Best Actress and the entire cast for Best Ensemble. And speaking of Viola Davis, her eloquent and beautiful speech single-handedly revived an otherwise stale evening. Her speech alone makes her worthy of an Oscar acceptance.

In terms of acting, the surest lock of them all is the Best Supporting Actor category which went to Christopher Plummer for "Beginners." It is, however, a safe bet to say Davis and Spencer could pave the way to Oscar with their respective wins, as well. Best Actor went to George Clooney for "The Descendants." His win is definitely still up in the air as he could get overshadowed by Brad Pitt for "Moneyball," his highest competition.

Aaron Sorkin proved unstoppable with his win for "Moneyball" in the Best Adapted Screenplay category. Likewise, for having not made an award-worthy movie in years, it only made sense that Woody Allen took home the award for his "Midnight in Paris" in the category of Best Original Screenplay. It's interesting to note both of these writing wins over "The Descendants" in adapted and "The Artist" in original.

And while "The Artist" didn't show at all for acting or writing, it still nabbed the two top prizes. With these wins tonight, it's on the fast track to taking the same top awards at the Oscars.

Now let's see how things turn out at the 69th Annual Golden Globes this Sunday.