NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The Artist, a black-and-white silent film about Hollywood, drama The Descendants, Brad Pitt, Martin Scorsese and Terrence Malick all won big on Sunday among US film critics and industry groups that doled out honours for the years best movies. The Boston Society of Film Critics, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the New York Film Critics Online all announced their choices for the best films and performances of 2011, kicking off a pivotal week in Hollywood with both the Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guilds announcing nominations. The Los Angeles-based film arts and educational group The American Film Institute also issued its list of the years 10 best films on Sunday. In Boston, critics chose The Artist, set against the backdrop of Hollywood moving from silent films to talkies, as the years best film, becoming the latest top prize for the silent film that has generated buzz in 2011 at festivals. The film failed to make AFIs top 10, but only because it was not an American-made movie. The group did cite The Artist and the Harry Potter series for AFI Special Awards. The AFI top 10 included George Clooney-starring The Descendants, Martin Scorseses Hugo, Woody Allens Midnight in Paris, Steven Spielbergs War Horse and in a raunchy twist, female comedy Bridesmaids. The Boston critics named Pitt best actor for his portrayal of a numbers-crunching baseball man in Moneyball and Michelle Williams best actress for her turn in My Week With Marilyn playing screen siren Marilyn Monroe. Pitt already won the New York Film Critics prize, while Williams much-lauded performance scored one of its first major wins on Sunday. This coming week, the Screen Actors Guild names nominees for best performances on December 14, and one day later the Hollywood Foreign Press Association similarly unveils its picks to vie for awards such as best film dramas and comedies. Early nominations and honors help narrow the list of movies, stars and filmmakers who will compete for Oscars, the film industrys top awards to be given out February 26 in Hollywood, where on Sunday L.A. critics gave top acting honors to Michael Fassbender and Koreas Yun Jung-hee.