- Title: USA: TOM HANKS RECEIVES BEST ACTOR AWARD AT NEW YORK FILM CRITICS AWARDS
- Date: 14th January 2001
- Summary: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, USA (JANUARY 14, 2001) (REUTERS) SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) PETER LORD, CO-DIRECTOR OF "CHICKEN RUN" SAYING, "It's a serious film you know I always say if you want to judge what we do like if people say oh, you're an animators, that comes quite low on the list to me. To me it's story telling number one, film making number two, animation number three so
- Embargoed: 29th January 2001 12:00
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- Location: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, USA
- Country: USA
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA1N5Q63OQ9J3OFNQ60NVSU1GUO
- Story Text: The New York Film Critics Circle Awards were handed out on Sunday (January 14) in New York and amongst the many stars to attend the event was Tom Hanks who was presented with best actor award for his role in "Castaway." .
New York' tallest building played host to some of the world's biggest movie stars as the New York Film Critics Circle Awards were handed out at the top of the World Trade Center on Sunday (January 14). The big winner of the night was Tom Hanks who won a best actor award for his portrayal of a man stranded alone on a deserted island in, "Cast Away".
When asked if his award had anything to do with the difficulty of acting alone for so much of the movie, Hanks responded that, "You could just view that as a gimmick that either does or does not work, and it doesn't really matter.
That's like saying how did it feel to have blue hair in the movie? Well unless you're telling a good story the blue hair is not going to carry any weight whatsoever. I'm just glad that the movie that we felt was interesting turned out to be interesting to enough people as well."
Laura Linney, the star of the highly acclaimed, "You Can Count on Me" was given the best actress award. She feels that the movie came together well, :"I think it's just that all the elements came into place with this one,you know I think that there were really great people and it's a wonderful script and it's the right director and the right cast and it all just sort of fell into place and it's been a lovely wonderful surprise for all of us."
The thriller, "Traffic" was awarded best picture. "Traffic" stars Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta- Jones and Benecio del Toro. The film's director, Ed Zwick feels that the New York Film Critics Circle Award brings attention to the film that it truly needs, "A movie like "Traffic" needs this kind of critical response to really find an audience and I think had we not had this kind of response it may have been harder to get an audience."
A runaway smash hit, "Chicken Run" was awarded Best Animated feature film. One of the directors of the film, Peter Lord, feels that it is a great script that is paramount above all else when it comes to movie making, "It's a serious film you know I always say if you want to judge what we do like if people say oh, you're an animators, that comes quite low on the list to me. To me it's story telling number one, film making number two, animation number three so like if it works as a story, good story, good characters, all the things that make you want to watch a story, put those in first and trust the audience to enjoy it."
Some of the other big winners of the night included Marcia Gay Harden who won for Best Supporting Actress for her role in "Pollock," a highly acclaimed film about the life of renowned painter, Jackson Pollack.
Benecio del Toro won Best Supporting Actor for his role in, "Traffic". Best Director honors went to Steven Soderbergh for his two smash films, "Erin Brockovich" and Traffic."
The New York Film Critics Circle was founded in 1935 and is the oldest and most influential organization of its kind. Its members are film critics for New York's most important daily and weekly publications. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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