Clooney's 'Good Night' wins major award

NEW YORK - George Clooney's McCarthy-era drama Good Night, and Good Luck was named best film of 2005 by the National Board of Review in the latest pre-Oscar award that helps narrow the field for the big prize.

Set in the 1950s and filmed in black and white, the film directed by Clooney chronicles the real-life conflict between television newsman Edward R. Murrow and Senator Joseph McCarthy.

Normally the first awards of the season, the New York-based National Board of Review postponed the announcement this year after complaints about the voting process. Several other critics' awards were announced over the weekend, kicking off the race for the Academy Awards on March 5.

Philip Seymour Hoffman was named best actor for the title role of Capote, and Desperate Housewives star Felicity Huffman was named best actress for playing a transgender character in the low-budget Transamerica.

The National Board of Review also listed its 10 best films of the year in a selection that included many of those named by the Critics Choice Awards on Sunday.

The list, which was not ranked in order, included independents such as Brokeback Mountain, Crash and Capote as well as A History of Violence, the political thriller Syriana and big studio productions Walk the Line and Memoirs of a Geisha.

Veteran directors Steven Spielberg and Woody Allen made the list for Munich and Match Point, respectively.

The awards are voted on by about 150 members of a screening committee and an awards panel of 12. The group's membership includes film professionals, educators, students and historians.

Ang Lee was named best director for the gay cowboy love story Brokeback Mountain, which already won best film from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association on Saturday.

Paradise Now, about Palestinian suicide bombers, was named best foreign-language film and March of the Penguins was given best documentary by the National Board of Review.

The announcement of the awards, to be presented on January 10, comes amid a week of critics' awards and other honours, including tomorrow's nominations for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's Golden Globe Awards.

- REUTERS