Thomas Langmann, at microphone, accepts the award for Best Motion Picture - Comedy Or Musical for "The Artist" during the 69th Annual Golden Globe Awards on Sunday. - AP

LOS ANGELES: Family drama The Descendants starring George Clooney won the top prize at the Golden Globes on Sunday, while silent film The Artist garnered the most prizes, with gongs in three categories.

The Hawaii-based drama also took best actor for Clooney, while French-directed The Artist won best score and best actor in a musical or comedy film at the Globes, Hollywood’s main pre-Oscars awards show. Meryl Streep won best actress for her mesmerizing portrayal of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady, while best director went to Martin Scorsese for his 3D adventure Hugo.

”Our quarterback was George Clooney,” said Descendants producer Jim Burke, accepting the award at the climax of the three-hour Globes show at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Los Angeles.

The movie missed out in the screenplay category to Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris, was beaten for supporting actress by Octavia Spencer in The Help. The Artist, which had garnered the most Globes nominations with nods in six categories, won one more award than The Descendants, with three Globes: for best musical/comedy film, best actor and best musical score.

Other winners Sunday night included Michelle Williams as best actress in a musical or comedy for her Monroe turn in My Week with Marilyn, and best supporting actor for Christopher Plummer in Beginners.

Best animated feature went to Spielberg’s big screen version of the Belgian cartoon book hero, The Adventures of Tintin. Best foreign language movie went to A Separation from Iran, which beat films from China and Belgium as well Spanish Pedro Almodovar’s The Skin I Live In, and Angelina Jolie’s directoral debut, In the Land of Blood and Honey.

British comic Ricky Gervais, hosting for the third straight year despite ruffling feathers at last year’s show, was again on provocative form although perhaps not quite as near-the-bone as 12 months ago.

“So, where was I?” he opened the show with, before taking an early stab at the Globes themselves.“It’s just like the Oscars without the esteem,” he said, adding: “The Golden Globes are to the Oscars what Kim Kardashian is to Kate Middleton” to groans from the star-studded audience.