Kirsten Dunst,Brad Pitt win film critics awards

But the big win by Melancholia bolstered the offbeat film’s chances for the upcoming Academy Awards,which will announce nominees later this month. Set against the backdrop of a country wedding,the dark film explores the strained relationship of two sisters,one a bride played by Dunst,while a strange planet threatens to collide with Earth,wiping out all traces of human existence.

Pitt,already a strong contender for the Oscars,was honoured for his roles as Oakland A’s manager Billy Beane in Moneyball as well as a strict father in The Tree of Life. Critics’ awards are important in helping build momentum heading toward the Academy Awards,or Oscars,which are the world’s top film awards given out on the final Sunday in February by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The NSFC includes 58 members from major newspapers in Los Angeles,Boston,New York,Chicago and other cities as well as from Time,Newsweek and The New Yorker and newspapers The Village Voice and The Boston Phoenix. The group’s awards for best supporting performances went to Albert Brooks,who played a small-time hood in the drama Drive,and Jessica Chastain,who was honoured for her performances in The Tree of Life,Take Shelter and The Help.

Both Brooks and Chastain have been honoured by other critics groups in early awards this season.

Several highly touted films,most notably The Artist,considered a front-runner for the Oscars,The Descendants and Martin Scorsese’s Hugo were shut out,although Scorsese was a close second in voting for best director. The award for best foreign language film was won by the Iranian film A Separation, about a couple struggling with the decision about whether or not to leave their home country. The film also won the prize for best screenplay. The film critics named Werner Herzog’s documentary The Cave of Forgotten Dreams,a 3D movie about a cave in southern France,as the year’s best non-fiction film. Ken Jacobs won the experimental film award for Seeking the Monkey King.