The black-and-white silent movie "The Artist" came away with the most prizes — three wins — at the Golden Globes, but the show spread the love around among a broad range of movies and TV shows.

Wins for "The Artist" included best musical or comedy and best actor in a musical or comedy for Jean Dujardin, while the family drama "The Descendants" claimed two awards, as best drama and dramatic actor for George Clooney.

Other acting winners were Meryl Streep, Michelle Williams, Christopher Plummer and Octavia Spencer; Martin Scorsese won the directing honor.

Streep won for dramatic actress as Margaret Thatcher in "The Iron Lady," her eighth win at the Globes.

Williams won for actress in a musical or comedy as Marilyn Monroe in "My Week with Marilyn," 52 years after Monroe's win for the same prize at the Globes.

The supporting-acting Globes went to Plummer as an elderly widower who comes out as gay in the father-son drama "Beginners"; and Spencer as a brassy housekeeper joining other black maids to share stories about life with their white employers in the 1960s Deep South tale "The Help."

Scorsese won for the Paris adventure "Hugo." It was the third directing Globe in the last 10 years for Scorsese.

Dujardin became the first star in a silent movie to earn a major Hollywood prize since the early days of film. He won as a silent-era star whose career unravels amid the rise of talking pictures in the late 1920s.

"The Artist," which led the Globes with six nominations, also won the musical-score prize for composer Ludovic Bource but lost out on three other awards, including the screenplay prize for Michel Hazanavicius.

Woody Allen won the screenplay honor for his romantic fantasy "Midnight in Paris," the moviemaker's biggest hit in decades. Never a fan of movie awards, Allen was a no-show at the Globes.

The wins boost Williams, Spencer and Plummer's prospects for slots at next month's Academy Awards, whose nominations come out Jan. 24.

The Globes are presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a group of 89 entertainment reporters for overseas outlets.