N.Y. film critics name 'Traffic' year's best film

Don Cheadle and Luis Guzman in "Traffic"

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- The New York Film Critics Circle on Wednesday named "Traffic," a drama about drug traffickers, the year's best film, boosting the independent film's chances for the Oscar nominations.

Tom Hanks, named best actor for the yet-unreleased "Cast Away," and Laura Linney, who won best actress for the independent drama "You Can Count on Me," similarly move to the top of a wide open field for the Academy Award nominations, which are announced in February.

The critics, a panel of 35 writers representing many of the nation's top newspapers and magazines, also chose "Traffic"'s director, Steven Soderbergh, as best director, and honored Benicio del Toro as best supporting actor for the film. Soderbergh won for both his work on "Traffic," which tells three disparate stories about drug trafficking centered along the U.S.-Mexico border, and the Julia Roberts movie "Erin Brockovich," and is now considered a likely Oscar contender.

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Marcia Gay Harden was named best supporting actress for "Pollock," in which she plays the artist Jackson Pollock's wife opposite Ed Harris in the title role, who also directed.

Best screenplay went to Kenneth Lonergan for "You Can Count on Me," a drama about an adult brother and sister coping with life problems in upstate New York, which he also directed.

Best foreign film was "Yi Yi (A One and a Two)," while Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" won best cinematography. Best non-fiction film was "The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg," while "Chicken Run" was named best animated film. "George Washington" was named best first film.

Tom Hanks in "Cast Away"

Special awards were given to the New York production company The Shooting Gallery, as well as Jules Dassin, director of the French classic film noir "Rififi" and Rialto Pictures for re-releasing the film.

David Sterritt, the Christian Science Monitor's film critic and current chairman of the New York Film Critics Circle, said afterward that the group's choices had been among the most diverse of recent years.

"We knew going in that the choices would be difficult," Sterritt said. Many critics considered the year an especially weak one for American films.

Last week the National Board of Review named "Quills" as the year's best film, but the fictional drama about the Marquis de Sade failed to win any of the New York critics' honors.

The awards will be presented on January 14.

On Saturday Los Angeles film critics will announce their choices for the year's best, which are also considered key pre-Oscar awards along with the Golden Globes in January.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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