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    NY Film Critics Name “American Hustle” Best Picture

    By SHOOTUpdated:No Comments2311 Views
    This film image released by Sony Pictures shows Bradley Cooper, left, and Christian Bale in a scene from "American Hustle." (AP Photo/Sony - Columbia Pictures, Francois Duhamel)

    By Jake Coyle, Film Writer

    NEW YORK (AP) --

    The New York Film Critics Circle named "American Hustle" the best film of 2013, giving David O. Russell's fictionalized Abscam tale an early jolt in Hollywood's awards season.

    The film was also awarded best supporting actress for Jennifer Lawrence and best screenplay for the script by Russell and Eric Singer. The film, which doesn't open in theaters until Dec. 13, is about a collection of FBI agents and con men that brought down high-profile politicians in and around New Jersey in the late 1970s.

    Best actor went to Robert Redford for his near-wordless performance in the shipwreck drama "All Is Lost." Cate Blanchett won best actress for her leading role as a bitter, fallen socialite in Woody Allen's "Blue Jasmine."

    "12 Years of Slave" filmmaker Steve McQueen took best director for his adaptation of Solomon Northup's memoir about being abducted and sold into slavery in 19th-century Louisiana.
    The critics group doesn't frequently predict Academy Awards winners. Last year, it chose Kathryn Bigelow's Osama bin Laden hunt docudrama "Zero Dark Thirty" as best picture, though the group was in line with Oscar voters in 2011 with "The Artist."

    Many prognosticators consider the front-runners this year to be "12 Years a Slave" and the space adventure "Gravity," but early awards are finding anything but consensus. On Monday night, the Gotham Independent Awards chose the Coen brothers' early '60s folk music tale "Inside Llewyn Davis" as best film.

    The New York critics named Bruno Delbonnel's photography for "Inside Llewyn Davis" best cinematography.
    Best supporting actor went to Jared Leto for his performance as an HIV-afflicted transsexual in "Dallas Buyers Club."

    Other awards included "Blue is the Warmest Color" for best foreign language picture, "Stories We Tell" for best non-fiction film, and "The Wind Rises" for best animated film.

    The New York Film Critics Circle, a body of New York-based critics founded in 1935, announced their annual vote on Twitter. Awards will be handed out at a ceremony Jan. 6.

    Award-giving continues Wednesday with the National Board of Review Awards. The Los Angeles Film Critics make their picks Sunday. Golden Globe nominations will be announced Dec. 12.

    Category:News
    Tags:American HustleNew York Film Critics



    Growth Brings Growing Pains–and Bots–To Bluesky

    Sunday, December 22, 2024

    Bluesky has seen its user base soar since the U.S. presidential election, boosted by people seeking refuge from Elon Musk's X, which they view as increasingly leaning too far to the right given its owner's support of President-elect Donald Trump, or wanting an alternative to Meta's Threads and its algorithms.

    The platform grew out of the company then known as Twitter, championed by its former CEO Jack Dorsey. Its decentralized approach to social networking was eventually intended to replace Twitter's core mechanic. That's unlikely now that the two companies have parted ways. But Bluesky's growth trajectory — with a user base that has more than doubled since October — could make it a serious competitor to other social platforms.

    But with growth comes growing pains. It's not just human users who've been flocking to Bluesky but also bots, including those designed to create partisan division or direct users to junk websites.

    The skyrocketing user base — now surpassing 25 million — is the biggest test yet for a relatively young platform that has branded itself as a social media alternative free of the problems plaguing its competitors. According to research firm Similarweb, Bluesky added 7.6 million monthly active app users on iOS and Android in November, an increase of 295.4% since October. It also saw 56.2 million desktop and mobile web visits, in the same period, up 189% from October.

    Besides the U.S. elections, Bluesky also got a boost when X was briefly banned in Brazil.

    "They got this spike in attention, they've crossed the threshold where it is now worth it for people to flood the platform with spam," said Laura Edelson, an assistant professor of computer science at Northeastern University and a member of Issue One's... Read More

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