People: Brad Pitt, 'The Artist' score with New York Film Critics.

Hopefully you weren't hoping to release an awesome indie film sometime the next 30 days.

With more than a month to go, 2011 film award season started Tuesday, when the New York Film Critics Circle named the silent film ode "The Artist" the year's best film Tuesday, giving the nostalgic black-and-white movie an early boost to its already promising Academy Awards prospects.

Couldn't they afford color film? Or a microphone?

"The Artist," which is silent like the films to which it pays homage, also earned best director for the French filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius. Oh, they were being artsy and stuff.

The boldly old-fashioned "The Artist," which the Weinstein Company opened in limited release last week, has emerged as an unlikely front-runner in the early stages of the Oscar race. The Spirit Awards, which honor independent film, also bestowed five nominations on it Tuesday.

The critics otherwise spread the awards around. Brad Pitt won best actor for his performances in "Moneyball" and Terrence Malick's cosmic drama "Tree of Life." Both of those films also earned other awards: "Tree of Life" for best cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki and "Moneyball" for Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin's screenplay.

Meryl Streep was chosen as best actress for her performance as Margaret Thatcher in the upcoming "The Iron Lady." Jessica Chastain won best supporting actress for a trio of performances in "Tree of Life," "The Help" and

"Take Shelter."

Albert Brooks earned best supporting actor for his against-type performance as a violent villain in the drama "Drive."

The New York Film Critics moved up their annual vote this year, a shift that was widely seen as a bid for greater relevance in the fall award season Tuesday. The move also meant some finagling: The critics screened "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" on Monday, and were not able to see the eagerly anticipated 9/11 drama "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close."

Werner Herzog's 3-D documentary "Cave of Forgotten! Dreams" was selected as best nonfiction film. The financial industry thriller "Margin Call" won best first feature. And the Iranian drama "A Separation" was picked for best foreign film.

The year's special award was given posthumously to the prolific Chilean-born filmmaker Raoul Ruiz, who died in August, shortly after the U.S. release of his acclaimed "Mysteries of Lisbon."

The New York Film Critics Circle, a body of 33 New York-based critics founded in 1935, announced their annual vote on Twitter for the first time. The group describes its awards as "a principled alternative to the Oscars, honoring aesthetic merit in a forum that is immune to commercial and political pressures."

Oh shut up.

The group last year chose the Facebook drama "The Social Network" as best picture.

Among the films snubbed by the critics were Alexander Payne's "The Descendants," Martin Scorsese's "Hugo" and Steven Spielberg's "War Horse." The awards will be handed out at a ceremony Jan. 9.

GEORGE MICHAEL STILL IN HOSPITAL: George Michael is recovering from a serious bout with pneumonia.

The 48-year-old British singer was admitted to a hospital in Vienna on Nov. 21. A source close to the former Wham frontman tells ABC News Michael is "getting better and better."

Numerous reports -- including a Telegraph article stating Michael is "at death's door" -- claim the singer is suffering from much more serious health problems than pneumonia. British paper The Telegraph also reports that the Grammy winner's family and loved ones have flown in to be by his side at the hospital.

But his publicist tells ABC News that "any other speculation regarding his illness is unfounded and untrue. He is receiving excellent medical care. He is responding to treatment and slowly improving."

The musician has sought treatment several times in the past for failing health and substance abuse problems. In Aug. 2010, he checked into a "detox program" after getting arrested for a previous DUI incident. He return! ed to re hab in Oct. 2010 after spending four weeks in jail in connection with his previous crash while driving under the influence.

FINALLY, MILEY CYRUS WEIGHS IN: Miley Cyrus, who celebrated her 19th birthday on Nov 23 at a party at which she told a crowd she smokes lots of pot, has dedicated her new song "Liberty Walk" to the Occupy Wall Street supporters.

But first she asked, "How did them folks get up on the wall in the first place?"

According to Time magazine, Cyrus released a video for the single that includes a montage of Occupy protests around the world, without one glimpse of Cyrus herself.

The dance-pop song has plenty of hopeful lyrics about standing up for what you believe in. The video is proceeded by a dedication: "This is dedicated to the thousands of people who are standing up for what they believe in."

You know, just once it would be nice to hear a song dedicated to those of us who absolutely, positively refuse tonever stand up for what we believe in.

Time also points out the irony of Cyrus lending her support to the 99 percenters, noting how she came in at number 18 on Forbes list of Hollywood's highest earners in 2010, with estimated earnings of $48 million. Which would buy a lot of tents. But, as Time says, protesters still like the tree-hugging, albeit rich tree-hugging, people of Hollywood. So Cyrus, Kanye West, Russell Simmons and others who have expressed their support, are safe.

TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Wednesday, Nov. 30, the 334th day of 2011. There are 31 days left in the year.

1782: The United States and Britain signed preliminary peace articles in Paris, ending the Revolutionary War.

1803: Spain completed the process of ceding Louisiana to France, which had sold it to the United States.

1835: Samuel Langhorne Clemens -- better known as Mark Twain -- was born in Florida, Mo.

1900: Irish writer Oscar Wilde died in Paris at age 46.

1936: London's famed Crystal Palace, constructed for the Great Exhibition of ! 1851, wa s destroyed in a fire.

1939: The Winter War began as Soviet troops invaded Finland. (The conflict ended the following March with a Soviet victory.)

1966: The former British colony of Barbados became independent.

1981: The United States and the Soviet Union opened negotiations in Geneva aimed at reducing nuclear weapons in Europe.

2001: Robert Tools, the first person in the world to receive a fully self-contained artificial heart, died in Louisville, Ky., of complications after severe abdominal bleeding; he had lived with the device for 151 days. Gary Leon Ridgway was arrested in connection with four of the Green River serial killings in Washington state (he later pleaded guilty to four dozen killings, and is serving life in prison).

2006: Pope Benedict XVI visited Istanbul's famous Blue Mosque in a dramatic gesture of outreach to Muslims.

2010: Pentagon leaders called for scrapping the 17-year-old "don't ask, don't tell" ban after releasing a survey about the prospect of openly gay troops.

BIRTHDAYS

Historian Jacques Barzun (104), actor Efrem Zimbalist Jr. (93), actor Robert Guillaume (84), TV personality and producer Dick Clark (82), radio talk show host G. Gordon Liddy (81), director Ridley Scott (74), writer-director Terrence Malick (68), rock musician Roger Glover (Deep Purple) (66), playwright David Mamet (64), actor Mandy Patinkin (59), singer Billy Idol (56), rock musician John Ashton (The Psychedelic Furs) (54), former football and baseball player Bo Jackson (49), rapper Jalil (Whodini) (48), actor-director Ben Stiller (46), actress Sandra Oh (41), country singer Mindy McCready (36), singer Clay Aiken (33), actress Elisha Cuthbert (29), actress Christel Khalil (24).