The Pianist and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers are the two films picking up new momentum as the 2002 Film Awards Season continues along. The biggest victories for Two Towers came from the Online Film Critics Society, which announced their winners yesterday. The Online Film Critics awarded the second installment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy with their honors for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Ensemble, Best Editing, Best Sound, and Best Visual Effects.
The rest of their choices really did not reveal any new surprises to this film awards season race. Best Actor was Daniel Day-Lewis, Best Actress was Julianne Moore, Supporting Actor went to Dennis Quaid for Far From Heaven, one of the first honors he is receiving for that wonderful film. Supporting Actress went to Samantha Morton for her PreCog performance in Minority Report. Far From Heaven did very well with the Online Film Critics organization, also getting the awards for Original Screenplay, Art Direction, Costume Design, and Original Score. Adaptation took the organization's honor for Adapted Screenplay, again cementing its forerunner status to win the Oscar.
Other choices by the Online Film Critics Society, which is a newer film awards organization comprised of film critics who write for the web, include Best Foreign Film going to Y Tu Mama Tambien, Best Documentary going to Bowling for Columbine, Best Animated Film going to Spirited Away, as well as a couple of Breakthrough Awards. Maggie Gyllenhaal won the Breakthrough Performance Award for her stunning performance in the little seen Secretary, and Mark Romanek won the Breakthrough Filmmaker prize for his very well done dark film, One Hour Photo.
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers also managed to win another Best Director prize for Peter Jackson by the Dallas-Fort Worth Critics Organization. Dallas-Fort Worth however went with Chicago as their choice of the best film of 2002. Jack Nicholson took their Best Actor honor, and good old Julianne Moore took the Best Actress honor.
One of the other really big critics organizations announced their best film choices this past weekend. The National Society of Film Critics gave a huge boost to the Oscar chances for Roman Polanski's Holocaust drama The Pianist. It won the Critics' prizes for Best Picture of the year, as well as Best Director, Best Actor for Adrien Brody, and Best Screenplay. Diane Lane got another boost towards her Oscar nomination as they awarded her Best Actress for Unfaithful. The National Society of Film Critics is based in New York, but represents 55 members from many of the United States's major newspapers and magazines.
