Jesus Christ--two posts about NYC film critics in four hours. I am so sorry. Alas, were you to check here for the news about the New York Film Critics Circle's 2005 awards, to know I let you down would provoke violent, guilt-anguished seizures. And I would hate to knock over the Christmas tree.

That does not mean I want to spend a lot of time talking about it, nor should you spend a lot of time worrying about it. In a nutshell, I was totally wrong about the NYFCC jumping behind A History of Violence; it indeed selected Brokeback Mountain as 2005's best film, and according to a statement just sent over to Reeler HQ, the group did not really shatter any Earth from there:

"I was not surprised at all that the voting was so competitive. What did surprise me was that we came to our conclusion so quickly, " said the group's chairman, Newsday critic Gene Seymour. "I'm not sure if that means it was a good year or a so-so year, but it always shakes out."

Werner Herzog will be honored for two of the Best Non-Fiction Films for his documentaries Grizzly Man and The White Diamond. 2046, directed by Wong Kar Wai, was selected as Best Foreign-Language Film, and Best First Film was given to filmmaker Bennett Miller for Capote. Best Animated Feature went to Hayao Miyazaki¹s animated adventure Howl's Moving Castle. Best Actor went to Heath Ledger for the film Brokeback Mountain, and Reese Witherspoon was named Best Actress for Walk the Line.

The award for Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress went to William Hurt and Maria Bello respectively for the same film, A History of Violence.

So now what? Vacation until Jan. 8, when the NYFCC gets together to hand out the hardware? Or maybe we can get back together for another round at Makor? Only this time, we are are going to plant Armond White next to Jeffrey Lyons. And give White a secret trigger that sends a 1,000-volt buzz through Lyons's seat every time he mentions Brokeback Mountain. "Ang Lee just--" ZZZZZZZZ "Motherfucker! Is that you, Armond?"

Oh... good times.