BARBS FLY AT NY CRITICS AWARDS

While most movie award presentations are generally gushing with praise, gratitude, and congeniality — the exception, of course, being the annual Raspberry Awards, but that’s generally an event staged with such humor that the winners (losers?) in each category are usually not miffed about their selection.

But such was not the case at Monday night’s New York Film Critics Circle Awards, which, according to some reports, turned out to be an insult fest. The provocateur in this case was, Armond White, film critic for the weekly New York Press, who presided over the affair. When director Darren Aronofsky appeared on the podium to present an award to his cinematographer on Black Swan, he said jokingly to White, who had given the movie a negative review, “You give us all another reason not to read the New York Press.” But White’s response was not so jovial, according to published reports. “That’s all right,” he said. “Darren reads me. That’s all I want. And because he reads me, he knows the truth.” White went on to scold other winners, and when he finally introduced playwright Tony Kushner to present the award for best picture to The Social Network, White, who also gave that film a negative review, remarked, “Maybe he can explain why it won best picture.”