(New York City) — Cinemarati: The Web Alliance for Film Commentary today chose *The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers* as the Best Film of 2002 in the third annual Cinemarati Awards. Winners in 26 additional categories, recognizing the best cinematic efforts of last year, were also named. *The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers* garnered four awards, including Best Film, Best Ensemble Cast, and Best Director for Peter Jackson. [More]

*THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS* WINS BEST FILM IN THE 2003 CINEMARATI AWARDS

(New York City) — Cinemarati: The Web Alliance for Film Commentary today chose *The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers* as the Best Film of 2002 in the third annual Cinemarati Awards. Winners in 26 additional categories, recognizing the best cinematic efforts of last year, were also named.

*The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers* garnered four awards, including Best Film, Best Ensemble Cast, and Best Director for Peter Jackson. Also highly honored were Todd Haynes’ *Far From Heaven,* picking up five awards, including Best Lead Actress for Julianne Moore and Best Supporting Actor for Dennis Quaid. Dylan Kidd’s *Roger Dodger* won three awards, including Best Lead Actor for Campbell Scott, and Spike Jonze’s *Adaptation* received two awards: Best Supporting Actress for Meryl Streep and Best Adapted Screenplay for Charlie and Donald Kaufman.

Roberto Benigni’s *Pinocchio* was doubly dishonored, named The Worst Film of the Year and Benigni himself bestowed with The Jar Jar Binks Award, for the “year’s most inexplicable cinematic creation,” for his 50-year-old boy-puppet.

The complete roster of awards appears below.

“I’m delighted that the Cinemarati Awards have recognized some genuinely worthy films of the year that haven’t received the attention they deserved,” said founding member MaryAnn Johanson, of FlickFilosopher.com, “such as our Orson Welles Award to new director Zacharias Kunuk for his wonderful fantasy *Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner).* And it’s great to be able to point out the ascendancy of film criticism online, as with our Best Film Web Site winner, The Onion’s AV Club.”

Unlike other professional awards, the Cinemarati Awards are chosen through Cinemarati’s signature, one-of-a-kind “showdown” process, where nominees go head-to-head in matchups voted on by its Member Critics and held in full public view at Cinemarati’s international home on the internet (http://www.cinemarati.org).

The 2003 Cinemarati Award Winners, as announced on Friday, February 21st, are listed below. Discussion on the winners and also-rans continues at the Cinemarati Roundtable (http://www.cinemarati.org/roundtable.)

2003 CINEMARATI AWARD WINNERS (Available online Friday, February 21st, 8:00AM Eastern at http://www.cinemarati.org/features/awards2003_winners.shtml)

BEST FILM
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

BEST NON-ENGLISH LANGUAGE FILM
Y Tu Mamà También

BEST ANIMATED FILM
Spirited Away

BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM
Bowling for Columbine

THE WORST FILM OF THE YEAR
Pinocchio

BEST DVD AWARD
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
(Platinum Series Extended Edition)

THE JOHN WATERS AWARD For the Year’s Guiltiest Pleasure
Undercover Brother

THE JAR JAR BINKS AWARD Dishonoring the Year’s Most Inexplicable Cinematic Creation
Fifty-year-old Roberto Benigni as Pinocchio

BEST LEAD ACTOR
Campbell Scott, Roger Dodger

BEST LEAD ACTRESS
Julianne Moore, Far From Heaven

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Dennis Quaid, Far From Heaven

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Meryl Streep, Adaptation

BEST ENSEMBLE CAST
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE AWARD
Jesse Eisenberg, Roger Dodger

BEST DIRECTOR
Peter Jackson, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

THE ORSON WELLES AWARD Honoring the Year’s Best Directorial Debut
Zacharias Kunuk, Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner)

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Pedro Almodovar, Talk to Her

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Charlie and Donald Kaufman, Adaptation

BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY
Dylan Kidd, Roger Dodger

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Edward Lachman, Far From Heaven

BEST FILM EDITING
D. Michael Horton and Jabez Olssen, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

OUTSTANDING DESIGN
Far From Heaven

BEST SONG (Original or Adapted)
“Aaj Mera Jee Kardaa,” Monsoon Wedding

BEST MUSICAL SCORE
Elmer Bernstein, Far From Heaven

BEST FILM WEB SITE
The Onion AV Club (http://www.theonionavclub.com/)

BEST OFFICIAL FILM SITE
Minority Report (http://www.precrime.org/)

EXCEPTIONAL ACHIEVEMENT IN CRITICISM
Amy Taubin, Film Comment

ROUNDTABLE FILM OF THE YEAR
(chosen by the participants of the Cinemarati Roundtable) 25th Hour

From: SeanAstin.com: An exciting new service has been made available by Sean to all of his fans and friends. With his current family and career demands, Mr. Astin regretfully doesn’t have the time to respond individually to all of his fan mail; however, this hasn’t stopped him from going an extra mile to satisfy all incoming requests for autographed pictures. [More]

From: robogeek.com: Actor-director SEAN ASTIN has been confirmed as Guest of Honor for this year’s 10th Anniversary Texas Film Festival, which is currently taking place this week at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. [More]

From: robogeek.com

Actor-director SEAN ASTIN has been confirmed as Guest of Honor for this year’s 10th Anniversary Texas Film Festival, which is currently taking place this week at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas.

Thanks to some truly heroic schedule-juggling on his part, Sean will present his acclaimed short film “The Long and Short of It” (which recently premiered at Sundance) at noon this Sat., Feb. 22, in Rudder Theatre on the Texas A&M campus. In addition, Sean will discuss highlights of his career (accompanied by a retrospective of clips), and participate in a Q&A.

Tickets are only $6, and are on sale now at the Rudder Theater Box Office (11am-8pm) in person or by phone — 979-845-1234 or toll-free at 888-890-5667.

For more information on the Texas Film Festival, click here. [More]

HOLLYWOOD (Zap2it.com) – “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” was honored by the Hollywood Makeup Artists and Hair Stylists Guild Monday (Feb. 17) night and received three awards for best makeup in a feature film. “Lord of the Rings” won awards for best character makeup, best special makeup effects and best character hairstyling, while “Chicago” was named best period makeup and “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” took home an award for best contemporary makeup. [More]