NATIONAL SOCIETY OF FILM CRITICS GIVES NFPF FILM HERITAGE AWARD

Press release courtesy of the National Society of Film Critics.

New York, NY (January 6, 2001)—The Best Picture of the Year 2000 award went to the Taiwanese film Yi Yi, Edward Yang's compassionate and multi-leveled ensemble film about a family in crisis. The Society, which comprises 50 of the country's leading movie critics, held its thirty-fifth annual award voting meeting at Sardi's Restaurant in New York City. Scrolls will be sent to the winners.

Making the announcement was the chair of the Society, Peter Rainer of New York Magazine, who was re-elected chair for 2001.

Here are the results, based on a weighted ballot system:

Best Nonfiction:
1. The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg (Aviva Kempner) 30 points
2. Dark Days (Marc Singer) 16
3. The Original Kings of Comedy (Spike Lee) 15

Best Actor:
1. Javier Bardem (Before Night Falls) 40
2. Mark Ruffalo (You Can Count on Me) 28
3. Tom Hanks (Cast Away) 9

Best Supporting Actor: (first ballot win)
1. Benicio Del Toro (Traffic) 49
2. Fred Willard (Best in Show) 30
3. Willem Dafoe (Shadow of the Vampire) 27

Best Actress: (first ballot win)
1. Laura Linney (You Can Count on Me) 58
2. Gillian Anderson (The House of Mirth) 39
3. Ellen Burstyn (Requiem for a Dream) 28

Best Supporting Actress:
1. Elaine May (Small Time Crooks) 28
2. Frances McDormand (Almost Famous, Wonder Boys) 24
3. Marcia Gay Harden (Pollock) 23

Best Screenplay (first ballot win)
1. You Can Count on Me (Kenneth Lonergan) 49
2. Wonder Boys (Steve Kloves) 28
3. Traffic (Stephen Gaghan) 18

Best Cinematography
1. Beau Travail (Agnès Godard) 31
2. Traffic (Steven Soderbergh) 20
3. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Peter Pau) 20 (tied for second)

Best Picture:
1. Yi Yi (Edward Yang) 34
2. Traffic (Steven Soderbergh) 18
3. The House of Mirth (Terence Davies) 17

Best Director: (first ballot win)
1. Steven Soderbergh (Traffic, Erin Brockovich) 42
2. Edward Yang (Yi Yi) 28
3. Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) 25

Best Experimental Film to Guy Maddin's "The Heart of the World." Guy Maddin packs a feature's worth of pyrotechnic wit into this six-minute tribute to the era of Russian Formalism, a gem of filmcraft and cinephilic intelligence.

Film Heritage Award to The National Film Preservation Foundation for its four-DVD anthology of 50 films from 18 archives, for preserving and propagating a body of films of cultural and historical significance, with an emphasis on non-Hollywood films.

Special Citation to Michelangelo Antonioni for the exemplary intelligence, creativity and integrity of his half-century-long career.

The National Society of Film Critics dedicated this year's awards to the memory of Vincent Canby, long time film critic for the New York Times and former chair of the Society, whose wit and erudition honored his profession.

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