AceShowbiz -

Helping narrowing the field of contenders for the Oscars while following other major film awards in Los Angeles and New York, the New York Film Critics Circle unveiled yesterday, December 11, the honorees of its 2006 NYFCC Awards based on the votes undertaken by its members consisting of the film critics from daily newspapers, weekly newspapers, and magazines.

The top prize of Best Picture was bestowed to Universal Pictures' tense 9/11 drama "United 93" with animated penguin romp "Happy Feet" as Best Animated Film and France's "Army of Shadows" as Best Foreign Film while "Deliver Us from Evil" was named Best Non-Fiction Film.

Nonetheless, the big winner of the event was "The Queen" as the British royal family drama swept two awards of Best Screenplay for Peter Morgan and Best Actress for Helen Mirren who has landed the same title at both NYFCO and LAFCA Awards announced the day before.

Like Mirren, Forest Whitaker also again won the Best Actor award for his performance in "The Last King of Scotland", this time being accompanied by Jackie Earle Haley and Jennifer Hudson in supporting category; the former for his role in "Little Children" while the latter for that of hers in "Dreamgirls." Complete list of winners can be accessed via https://www.nyfcc.com/awards.php.