Dallas film critics pick ‘Million Dollar Baby’

Hilary Swank won best actress; Paul Giamatti best actor

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updated 2:36 p.m. ET Jan. 4, 2005

NEW YORK - “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.

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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.”