Australia's Heath Ledger has won a top acting award for his role in gay cowboy romance Brokeback Mountain.
The film won three of the four top awards it was nominated for at the New York Film Critics Circle, gaining momentum as a critics' favourite for the Oscars.
The awards are among the second-tier prizes leading up to the March 5 Academy Awards.
Director Ang Lee's film is shaping up to be an Oscar contender despite concerns that its plot - the relationship between two cowboys in Wyoming - may offend conservative audiences.
The New York Film Critics Circle gave the movie awards for best film, best director and best actor, for Ledger.
Ledger was also nominated for the best actor award by the Critics Choice Awards on Sunday.
Reese Witherspoon was named best actress for her role as June Carter in the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line.
Brokeback Mountain won best film from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association on Saturday, and it earned eight nominations for the Critics Choice Awards on Sunday.
"A lot of people among critics are responding to it because it is so daring," said Gene Seymour, chairman of the New York Film Critics Circle. "It has all the sweep of what we have come to know as a major Hollywood romance, but it carries within it such a grand departure."
The awards for best supporting actor and best supporting actress went to William Hurt and Maria Bello for their roles in A History of Violence.
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