Soderbergh Seduces Critics

Film director Steven Soderbergh scooped the top prizes at a New York awards ceremony last night, and entered pole position for the Oscars race as a result. The New York Film Critics Circle is the first prestigious awards ceremony of the year in the run up to the Academy Awards and last night, they awarded the prizes of Best Film to Traffic and Best Director to Steven Soderbergh for both Traffic and Erin Brockovich. Benicio Del Toro also picked up an award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the film. Other winners included Laura Linney who picked up the Best Actress gong for her role in You Can Count On Me and Tom Hanks who won Best Actor for Cast Away. The UK's Chicken Run won the nod for Best Animated Feature - making the film an early favourite to win the debut award of the same name at the Oscars in March.