by Ian Mohr
NEW YORK (The Hollywood Reporter) --- As awards season gathers momentum, Far From Heaven is the latest film to enjoy a moment in the ever-shifting spotlight. The New York Film Critics Circle on Monday chose Heaven, which Universal specialty arm Focus Films has in release, as the year's best film, and it named Todd Haynes best director for his 1950s-set homage to the vintage melodramas of helmer Douglas Sirk.
Heaven, which had to settle for the runner-up slot behind New Line Cinema's About Schmidt when the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn. announced its year-end honors Saturday, collected several hosannas from the New York critics. In addition to best picture and director, it received three other awards from the group: best supporting actor (Dennis Quaid), best supporting actress (Patricia Clarkson) and best cinematography (Edward Lachman).
But Heaven's female lead, Julianne Moore, was knocked out of the winner's circle in Manhattan, where the upset victory went to Diane Lane for Adrian Lyne's 20th Century Fox/Regency Enterprises release Unfaithful.Moore has been an awards-season darling thus far this year, being named best actress by the National Board of Review and the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn. for her turn in Heaven as a repressed Connecticut housewife. In Unfaithful, Lane plays a contemporary stay-at-home mom who has an affair with a younger French man in Manhattan.
Daniel Day-Lewis hacked off an NYFCC best actor win for his role as the murderous 19th century crime lord Bill the Butcher in Miramax Films' Gangs of New York. Gangs, directed by Martin Scorsese, rumbles into theaters Friday. (In Los Angeles, Day-Lewis shared best actor honors with Schmidt's Jack Nicholson.)
The 34-member NYFCC voted for its 68th annual awards at Manhattan's Muse Hotel on Monday morning. The group -- an organization of film reviewers from New York-based publications that honors excellence in U.S. and world cinema -- includes critics from daily and weekly newspapers and magazines.
Founded in 1935, the organization's awards have predicted the Oscars' best picture with a historical success rate of 43%.
"Far From Heaven is a distinct and personal vision from Todd Haynes," said Marshall Fine, this year's NYFCC chair. "I think it was one of the most complete and fulfilling films of the year." Fine added that the film's nod to the vintage work of Sirk likely held additional appeal for the NYFCC's members.
As for Lane's win, Fine said: "That was the most surprising vote of the day. (Lane's) performance obviously really spoke to the voters this year."
Best screenplay went to Sony's release Adaptation in the name of the two credited screenwriters, Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman, even though the latter is believed to be a fiction created by Charlie Kaufman.
Further boosting its dark-horse awards-season buzz, Artisan Entertainment's Roger Dodger, starring Campbell Scott as a womanizing New York ad executive, took home a best first film honor for its writer-director, Dylan Kidd. Scott had surprised many by winning the NBR's best actor honor earlier this month.
Artisan rung up another win for best nonfiction film with Standing in the Shadows of Motown, the story of the venerable R&B label's unheralded house band, the Funk Brothers.
The critically lauded Buena Vista Pictures import Spirited Away, by animation icon Hayao Miyazaki, was picked as best animated feature.
Best foreign film went to filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron and IFC Films' Y Tu Mama Tambien.
The NYFCC bestowed a special award this year to a restored version of Fritz Lang's 1920s masterpiece Metropolis, distributed through Kino International.
Meanwhile, a separate New York critics group, the New York Film Critics Online, named Moore the year's best actress Sunday. The online critics also picked the musical Chicago as their top movie of the year, with Far From Heaven as the runner-up. Haynes tied for best director with Scorsese while Day-Lewis won the group's best-actor award. Supporting-actor honors went to Willem Dafoe for Auto Focus and Edie Falco for Sunshine State.
Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine was the group's top documentary, and Tambien was voted the best foreign language film.
The New York Film Critics Online is composed of 24 New York-based critics, most of whom post their reviews exclusively to an online source.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
© 2002 The Hollywood Reporter