‘Mystic River’ Tops Broadcast Critics’ Movie List
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Contenders for Hollywood’s 2003 film awards narrowed further on Tuesday when broadcast critics weighed in on the annual competition with a diverse list of film nominations led by major studio release “Mystic River” and independent offering “In America.”
Nominees by the Broadcast Film Critics Association, which counts 182 members in the United States and Canada, follows Monday’s awards from the 35-member New York Film CriticsCircle, which named adventure “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” as 2003’s top movie.
Each year, critics awards often influence voting for the U.S. film industry’s top honors, the Oscars, in February. The season gains more momentum on Thursday when the Hollywood Foreign Press Association picks nominees for its annual GoldenGlobe Awards in January.
BFCA president Joey Berlin called his group’s list “fascinating” for its diversity of “several epics and several smaller, intensely personal films.”
“Mystic River,” about three boyhood friends involved in a neighborhood murder, earned nominations in eight BFCA categories including best film, director for Clint Eastwood, actor for Sean Penn and supporting actor and actress for Tim Robbins and Marcia Gay Harden, respectively.
Earlier this month, the movie was named 2003’s best film by the U.S. National Board of Review and Penn, playing a thug who suspects one of his old friends (Robbins) of being a killer, won the group’s award for best actor.
“In America,” in which Irish director Jim Sheridan retells events from his first year living in New York City, landed nominations in seven categories including best film, director for Sheridan and writer for him and his daughters, Kirsten and Naomi Sheridan. Samantha Morton was nominated for best actress.
“Lord of the Rings” landed in four BFCA categories, among them best film and best acting ensemble, but the epic based on the J.R.R. Tolkien books was shut out of individual acting groups.
Joining Penn in the best actor race is Bill Murray playing an actor whose flagging career sends him to Tokyo to shoot commercials in independent hit “Lost In Translation.” Murray was named best actor by the New York Film Critics Circle.
“Translation” won five BFCA nominations, including best film. Sofia Coppola will compete for director and writer honors, and Scarlett Johansson for supporting actress.
Up against Murray and Penn for best actor are Russell Crowe in “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World,” which also was nominated for best film, Johnny Depp for “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl,” and Ben Kingsley for drama “House of Sand and Fog.”
Kingsley’s “Sand and Fog” co-star, Jennifer Connelly, will compete in the best actress category against Morton for her work in “In America” and Charlize Theron, who undertook a major acting transformation playing a female serial killer in “Monster.”
The actresses are joined by Nicole Kidman for Civil War drama “Cold Mountain,” Diane Keaton in romance “Something’s Gotta Give” and Naomi Watts for drama “21 Grams.
Rounding out the list of 10 best film nominees weredirector Tim Burton’s drama about a young man rediscovering his love for his father in “Big Fish,” which had five nominations overall, “Cold Mountain,” which had four, computer animated hit “Finding Nemo,” “The Last Samurai” and “Seabiscuit.”
The BFCA names its winners on Jan. 10 in a ceremony televised on the E! Entertainment cable TV network.
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