“Million Dollar Baby” has won another round, this time taking top honors from the Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association.
The film — directed by Clint Eastwood, who stars as a veteran boxing manager — also earned best-actress honors Monday for Hilary Swank’s performance as a fighter who comes from nothing and turns into a champion.
Two out of three New York Times critics named “Million Dollar Baby” the best film of 2004, and the movie has shown up on the top-10 lists of several other critics’ groups. It also has received five Golden Globe nominations, including best motion picture drama.
The 63 print and broadcast journalists from across North Texas who make up the group named Paul Giamatti best actor for the wine-tasting comedy “Sideways.” Two of his co-stars, Thomas Haden Church and Virginia Madsen, took the supporting-actor categories.
Martin Scorsese was named best director for his Howard Hughes epic, “The Aviator.”
“The Incredibles” was the group’s pick for best animated feature. Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11” won the documentary honors, and the French film “A Very Long Engagement” took the foreign-language category.
After “Million Dollar Baby,” the Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association’s picks for the year’s best films were, in order: “Sideways,” “Finding Neverland,” “The Aviator,” “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” “Ray,” “Kinsey,” “The Incredibles,” “A Very Long Engagement” and “Hotel Rwanda.”