娱乐英语新闻:"Argo" takes best picture, director at Critics' Choice Awards

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- Thursday turned out to be bittersweet for Ben Affleck, as his Iran hostage drama "Argo" was honored with top awards including best picture and best director at the 18th Critics' Choice Movie Awards, but was apparently snubbed by Oscar voters.

The actor-director was shut out of the best director nomination for the 85th Academy Awards when Seth MacFarlane and "The Amazing Spider-Man" star Emma Stone unveiled the nominees in the wee hours at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles.

Affleck, however, saw his loss being largely recouped when he won over Steven Spielberg and other heavyweights at the annual Critics' event held by the Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA).

"I would like to thank the academy," Affleck joked when accepting his trophy onstage. "I'm kidding this is the one that counts."

"Lincoln," Spielberg's biopic about the 16th U.S. president's effort to end slavery and civil war, led the contentions with 13 nods. However, it only won a best actor for Daniel Day-Lewis, and a best screenplay and a best score.

This is a heaven-and-earth ride for the veteran film-maker and his film. Earlier, "Lincoln" nabbed a total of 12 nominations, including best picture, best director, best actor and best supporting actress as the top winner along the Oscar trail.

"Silver Linings Playbook" also won big at the ceremony held in Santa Monica, California, as the romantic drama took home best comedy, best actor in a comedy for Bradley Cooper and best actress in a Comedy for Jennifer Lawrence.

Earlier, the comedy, directed by David O. Russell, was mentioned eight times as a formidable contender during the Academy Awards nominations.

Lawrence, who was also honored with best actress in an action movie for her portrayal in the sci-fi actioner "The Hunger Games," ceded best actress to Jessica Chastain who played a young CIA analyst who is bent to track down and kill Osama bin Laden in "Zero Dark Thirty."

"In my moments of deepest doubt you lifted me up," Castain said when accepting her award onstage, referring to director Kathryn Bigelow. "You're an inspiration to me in all ways."

The supporting actor awards were split between Anne Hathaway who played an impoverished mother in "Les Miserables," and Philip Seymour Hoffman who starred as a cult leader in "The Master."

"Skyfall," the 23rd James Bond film thwarted "The Dark Knight Rises" and "The Avengers" to garner the best action movie honor, while its star Daniel Craig was named best actor in an action movie.

"Amour," an Austrian French-language drama depicting an elderly couple, won for best foreign language film.

Best animated feature was won by "Wreck-It Ralph," a Disney 3-D computer-animated family-action comedy.

The BFCA, founded in 1995, is the largest film critics organization in the United States and Canada comprising about 270 television, radio and online critics.