Best Director to Kathryn Bigelow of "The Hurt Locker"
By Jake Coyle, Entertainment Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --The Iraq war drama “The Hurt Locker” added to its award-season momentum, winning best film from the New York Film Critics Circle.
The group, which announced its selections Monday, also awarded best director to Kathryn Bigelow of “The Hurt Locker.” Those choices mirrored the selections of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, which were announced Sunday.
The New York critics picked Meryl Streep for best actress for her performance in “Julie & Julia.” It was her fourth award from the group.
Best actor went to George Clooney, who was chosen for “Up in the Air” and “Fantastic Mr. Fox.” The latter, Wes Anderson’s stop-motion animated movie, won for best animated film.
Christoph Waltz, who played a menacing Nazi in Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds,” won best supporting actor. Best actress went to Mo’Nique for her performance as the mother in “Precious.”
The New York Film Critics Circle Awards are among the drumbeat of critics’ prizes leading up to the Academy Awards on March 7. Oscar nominations are announced Feb. 2. Nominations for the Golden Globes, perhaps the most high profile of the earlier awards, were to be announced Tuesday by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
The early positive critical response to James Cameron’s “Avatar” has recently altered the handicapping of the Oscar race. Though the NYFCC declined to give any awards to “Avatar,” the New York Film Critics Online on Sunday named the movie its choice for best picture.
“We had a lot of good stuff to choose from and we spread the awards around,” said NYFCC chairman Armond White, critic for New York Press. “That’s a good thing because it recognizes the year’s abundance.”
The group also gave best screenplay to the political satire “In the Loop.” Best cinematography went to Christian Berger for his work on Michael Haneke’s “The White Ribbon.”
Olivier Assayas’ French drama “Summer Hour s” won for best foreign film. Terence Davies’ “Of Time and the City,” which is both a documentary and a personal narrative, was chosen as best “nonfiction film.”
For the first time, the critics also chose to give their special award to a fellow critic: Andrew Sarris, the famed critic who wrote for the Village Voice and championed the “auteur theory.” Earlier this year, the 81-year-old writer was laid off by the New York Observer, though he remains a film professor at Columbia University.
The New York Film Critics Circle, founded in 1935, will present its awards Jan. 11. The group, which is composed of 33 metro-area film critics, last year named Gus Van Sant’s “Milk” as best picture.
Alec Baldwin Urges Judge To Stand By Dismissal Of Involuntary Manslaughter Case In “Rust” Shooting
Alec Baldwin urged a New Mexico judge on Friday to stand by her decision to skuttle his trial and dismiss an involuntary manslaughter charge against the actor in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer on the set of a Western movie.
State District Court Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer dismissed the case against Baldwin halfway through a trial in July based on the withholding of evidence by police and prosecutors from the defense in the 2021 shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the film "Rust."
The charge against Baldwin was dismissed with prejudice, meaning it can't be revived once any appeals of the decision are exhausted.
Special prosecutor Kari Morrissey recently asked the judge to reconsider, arguing that there were insufficient facts and that Baldwin's due process rights had not been violated.
Baldwin, the lead actor and co-producer on "Rust," was pointing a gun at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during a rehearsal when it went off, killing her and wounding director Joel Souza. Baldwin has said he pulled back the hammer — but not the trigger — and the revolver fired.
The case-ending evidence was ammunition that was brought into the sheriff's office in March by a man who said it could be related to Hutchins' killing. Prosecutors said they deemed the ammunition unrelated and unimportant, while Baldwin's lawyers alleged that they "buried" it and filed a successful motion to dismiss the case.
In her decision to dismiss the Baldwin case, Marlowe Sommer described "egregious discovery violations constituting misconduct" by law enforcement and prosecutors, as well as false testimony about physical evidence by a witness during the trial.
Defense counsel says that prosecutors tried to establish a link... Read More