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Film critics group honors "Yi Yi"
2001-01-09
NEW YORK - Edward Yang's "Yi Yi," a quiet family drama set in Taiwan, was named best picture of the year Saturday by the National Society of Film Critics. In the organization's weighted ballot system, Yang's Winstar-distributed Mandarin-language film, which clocks in at close to three hours, won nearly twice the number of votes received by the runner up, Steven Soderbergh's "Traffic." The surprising choice reflects an award season that has become unusually hard to call, in which a wide array of specialty films, several by Asian filmmakers, have stolen some of the thunder of even the most celebrated studio releases. The 35-year-old Society, chaired by New York magazine critic Peter Rainer and comprised of 51 critics from around the country, awarded several other top prizes to films released by specialty labels. Paramount Classics' "You Can Count on Me" won two awards, with best actress honors going to Laura Linney and best screenplay kudos to Kenneth Lonergan. USA Films' "Traffic" also received two citations. Benicio Del Toro was named best supporting actor and Soderbergh was named best director (for both "Traffic" and "Erin Brockovich"). Javier Bardem won best actor kudos for "Before Night Falls" from Fine Line, and Elaine May took the best supporting actress prize for "Small Time Crooks" from DreamWorks. The awards for best cinematography and best nonfiction film went to pictures from microdistributors -- the former to Agnes Godard for "Beau Travail," distributed by New Yorker Films, and the latter to "The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg," released by Cowboy Booking. Perhaps unusual in a year with so many strong foreign-language contenders, including Ang Lee's celebrated "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," which earned third place for best cinematography and director but was otherwise ignored, no prize was presented in the best foreign film category. Canadian director Guy Madden won a prize for best experimental film for his short, "The Heart of the World," which was made as a celebratory pre-feature promo piece for the Toronto Film Festival. The Society also granted the National Film Preservation Foundation a Film Heritage Award and presented a special citation to Italian filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni, noting "the exemplary intelligence, creativity and intregrity of his his half-century-long career." Reuters/Variety
Film director Antonioni dies at 94 (2007-07-31)Toronto Film Fest Nabs 100 World Premieres (2004-08-25)Film critics group honors "Yi Yi" (2001-01-09)4 (11285)
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