CAROL Chosen Best Film By NY Film Critics Circle

Carol, director Todd Haynes adaption of Patricia Highsmith’s novel The Price Of Salt, was the big winner in today’s announced New York Film Critics Circle year end “Best Of” list. The story of the love affair between two women in 1950s New York City scored four nods including Best Picture and Best Director for Haynes as well as recognition for the film’s screenplay by Phyllis Nagy and its cinematography by Edward Lachman.

Although the winners were announced today, the NY Film Critics Circle will hand out their awards on January 4. The group is made up of film reviewers from daily and weekly newspapers, magazines and online sites.

In the acting categories, Michael Keaton took the critic’s award for Best Actor for his role as the lead of a team of investigative reporters in Spotlight, while Saoirse Ronan secured the Best Actress nod for her work as an Irish immigrant in the drama Brooklyn.

Mark Rylance’s understated work as a a Soviet spy in Steven SPielberg’s Bridge Of Spies snared the actor the Best Supporting Actor honors.

The Best Supporting Actress award went to Kristen Stewart for her role in Clouds Of Sils Maria. While Stewart has been routinely, and rightly, criticized for her lack of range in the Twilight films and several other roles, it should be noted that she was the first American actress to receive France’s Cesar award, the French equivalent of the Academy Award, for her performance.

Other winners include Pixar’s Inside Out taking top honors for Best Animated Feature, the Hungarian drama Son of Saul, which won the Grand Prix at Cannes, earning the best first film nod while the foreign film honors went to the Mauritanian drama Timbuktu.