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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, January 5, 1993                   TAG: 9301050171
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 3   EDITION: METRO   
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Medium

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EASTWOOD WINS TOP FILM CRITICS' AWARDS

Clint Eastwood's "Unforgiven," a bleak Western about frontier justice, was chosen best picture of 1992 on Sunday by film critics from 25 national publications.

The film, which Eastwood directed and starred in, also won the prizes for best director, best screenplay and best supporting actor from the National Society of Film Critics.

Of the society's 35 member critics from major newspapers and magazines, 25 were present to vote for the annual awards at the Algonquin Hotel.

The critics named Irish director Neil Jordan's film "The Crying Game" as runner-up for best picture, followed by Robert Altman's "The Player."

Other awards:

Best screenplay: David Webb Peoples for "Unforgiven." Runner-up: Jordan for "The Crying Game."

Best actor: Stephen Rea as the IRA soldier in "The Crying Game." Runner-up: Eastwood in "Unforgiven."

Best actress: Emma Thompson as a woman torn by class prejudice in the British film "Howards End." Runner-up: Susan Sarandon in "Light Sleeper" and "Lorenzo's Oil."

Best supporting actor: Gene Hackman as the genial but sadistic sheriff in "Unforgiven." Runner-up: Jaye Davidson in "The Crying Game."

Best supporting actress: Judy Davis as a distraught woman separated from her husband in Woody Allen's "Husbands and Wives." Runner-up: Miranda Richardson in "The Crying Game," "Enchanted April" and "Damage."

Best documentary: Director Barbara Kopple's "American Dream," which follows a strike at a Hormel plant in Minnesota. Runner-up: Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky's "Brother's Keeper," which documents the trial in upstate New York of an illiterate man accused of murdering his brother.

Best cinematography: "Raise the Red Lantern," with Zhao Fei as the director of photography. Runner-up: "Laws of Gravity," director Nick Gomez' film about machismo in working-class Brooklyn, with Jean de Segonzac as the director of photography.

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