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.
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More