'The Descendants,' 'Drive' Take Top Satellite Award Honors

Acting prizes go to "Drive's" Ryan Gosling and Albert Brooks, Viola Davis and Jessica Chastain; "Justified" and "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" also feted.

8:00 PM PST 12/18/2011 by Gregg Kilday

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Fox Searchlight's The Descendants was named best picture of the year at the International Press Academy's 16th annual Satellite Awards, which were held Sunday evening at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

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But the neon-lit thriller Drive, from FilmDistrict, took home the most movie trophies, with best directing, honors going to Nicolas Winding Refn; best actor and supporting actor, going to Ryan Gosling and Albert Brooks; and best sound editing.

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In addition to its best picture win, Descendants earned a trophy for best adapted screenplay, which went to Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash.

Viola Davis was named best actress for The Help, while Jessica Chastain was singled out as best supporting actress for her performance in The Tree of Life, which also earned best original screenplay honors for Terrence Malick.

Raoul Ruiz's Mysteries of Lisbon was honored as best foreign film; The Adventures of Tintin, best animated movie; and Senna, best documentary.

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Other film winners included: score, Soul Surfer; song, "Lay Down Your Head," Albert Nobbs; cinematography, War Horse; visual effects, Hugo; film editing, The Guard; art & production design, The Artist; and costume design, Water for Elephants.

The critics group also handed out ten television awards and nine awards in new media. Justified was named best TV drama series and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia was named best TV comedy series.

Mitzi Gaynor, Douglas Trumbull, Peter Bogdanovich, Carl Reiner and the late Tim Hetherington were all recognized with special awards.