LOS ANGELES FILM CRITICS ANNOUNCE 2003 AWARD WINNERS

"American Splendor" was voted Best Picture of the Year, it was announced by Jean Oppenheimer, President of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA). The runner up was "Lost in Translation".

LAFCA's 29th annual achievement awards ceremony will be held Monday, January 26 at the St. Regis Hotel in Los Angeles.

Other award winners are:

DIRECTOR: Peter Jackson: "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King"
Runner-up: Clint Eastwood: "Mystic River"

ACTRESS: Naomi Watts, "21 Grams"
Runner-up: Charlize Theron, "Monster"

ACTOR: Bill Murray, "Lost in Translation"
Runner-up: Sean Penn, "21 Grams" and "Mystic River"

SCREENPLAY: Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini, "American Splendor"
Runner-up: Steven Knight, "Dirty Pretty Things"

SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Shohreh Aghdashloo, "House of Sand and Fog"
Runner-up: Melissa Leo, "21 Grams"

SUPPORTING ACTOR: Bill Nighy, "AKA","I Capture the Castle", "Lawless Heart" & "Love Actually"
Runner-up: Benicio Del Toro, "21 Grams"

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: Patrice Leconte, "The Man on the Train"
Runner-up: Fernando Meirelles, "City of God"

DOCUMENTARY/NON-FICTION FILM: Errol Morris, "The Fog of War"
Runner-up: Andrew Jarecki, "Capturing the Friedmans"

PRODUCTION DESIGN: Grant Major, "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King"
Runner-up: William Sandell, "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World"

ANIMATION: Sylvain Chomet, "The Triplets of Belleville"
Special Citation to the Disney restoration of the Walt Disney/Salvador Dali short, "Destino."

MUSIC/SCORE: Benoit Charest, Mathieu Chedid, "The Triplets of Belleville"
Runner-up: Christopher Guest, John Michael Higgins, Eugene Levy, Michael McKean, Catherine O'Hara, Annette O'Toole, Harry Shearer, and Jeffrey C.J. Vanston, "A Mighty Wind"

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Eduardo Serra, "Girl with a Pearl Earring"
Runner-up: Harris Savides, "Elephant"

NEW GENERATION: Scarlett Johansson

CAREER ACHIEVEMENT: Robert Altman

INDEPENDENT/EXPERIMENTAL: - none -