‘Capote’ is critics’ pick for best film
NEW YORK (AP) – Capote, which chronicles the years Truman Capote spent researching and writing the groundbreaking non-fiction novel In Cold Blood, was named best picture of 2005 after a lengthy vote by the National Society of Film Critics.
It took six ballots for 45 U.S. critics to come to the best picture decision Saturday at a Manhattan restaurant, according to Liz Weis, the society’s executive director.
The mafia story A History of Violence earned second place in the best picture vote, and 2046, the story of a former newspaper editor’s exploits in a hotel room, ranked third.
Capote star Philip Seymour Hoffman was voted best actor for his transformation into the author who became obsessed with the 1959 murder of a farm family in Kansas.
Second place in the best actor category went to Jeff Daniels, who played a father of two boys in the divorce story The Squid and the Whale. Heath Ledger, a cowboy conflicted about his feelings for another man in Brokeback Mountain, was a close third.
Reese Witherspoon was selected as best actress for her performance as June Carter Cash in the biopic Walk the Line. Keira Knightley won second place in that category for Pride and Prejudice; Vera Farmiga (Down to the Bone) and Kate Dollenmayer (Funny Ha Ha) shared third.
A History of Violence also took honours for best director, which went to Canadian David Cronenberg, and best supporting actor, awarded to Ed Harris for his portrayal of gangster Carl Fogarty. Best screenplay went to Noah Baumbach’s The Squid and the Whale.
Amy Adams was voted best supporting actress for her performance in Junebug. Best nonfiction film went to Grizzly Man, Werner Herzog’s documentary about Timothy Treadwell, who lived among bears in Alaska for a dozen years before being fatally mauled.
German director Fatih Akin’s Gegen die Wand (Head On), about second generation Turks living in Germany, won best foreign language picture, and 2046 took top honours for cinematography.
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