Mulholland Drive was named best picture of 2001 by the influential National Society Of Film Critics on Saturday, completing a remarkable run of success for David Lynch's film which began with a best director prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival.

The National Society which comprises 52 of the country's leading critics has been voting its annual awards since 1966 and dedicated this year's awards to the memory of Pauline Kael, the longtime New Yorker fim critic and a founding member of the Society.

Voting was conducted using a weighted ballot system. Mulholland Drive won 30 votes to win its prize, followed closely by Robert Altman's Gosford Park with 28 and Peter Jackson's The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring with 19. Altman was named best director with 28 votes followed by Lynch with 25 and Jackson with 22.

Other winners (see full list below) included Gene Hackman as best actor for The Royal Tenenbaums, Naomi Watts as best actress for Mulholland Drive, Steve Buscemi as best supporting actor for Ghost World and Helen Mirren as best supporting actress for Gosford Park. Gosford Park also won best screenplay for Julian Fellowes.

In The Mood For Love was named best foreign language film as well as best cinematography, The Gleaners And I best non-fiction film and Waking Life won a prize for experimental work.

Membership to the National Society of Film Critics is by election and members include critics from major newspapers in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Boston and Philadelphia as well as from magazines such as Time, Newsweek, The New Yorker and New York magazine.

NATIONAL SOCIETY OF FILM CRITICS 2001 AWARDS
FULL LIST OF WINNERS WITH VOTES

BEST PICTURE
1 Mulholland Drive 30
2 Gosford Park 28
3 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring 19

BEST DIRECTOR
1 Robert Altman, Gosford Park 28
2 David Lynch, Mulholland Drive 25
3 Peter Jackson, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring 22

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
1 In the Mood for Love, directed by Wong Kar-wai 29
2 The Circle, directed by Jafar Panahi 23
3 Amores Perros, directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu 17

BEST NON-FICTION FILM
1 The Gleaners and I, directed by Agnès Varda 84
2 The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition, directed by George Butler 31
3 My Voyage to Italy, directed by Martin Scorsese 24

BEST SCREENPLAY
1 Gosford Park, written by Julian Fellowes 28
2 Ghost World, written by Daniel Clowes and Terry Zwigoff 27
3 Memento, written by Christopher Nolan 17

BEST ACTOR
1 Gene Hackman for The Royal Tenenbaums 38
2 Denzel Washington for Training Day 20
3 Tom Wilkinson for In The Bedroom 19

BEST ACTRESS
1 Naomi Watts for Mulholland Drive 64
2 Sissy Spacek for In The Bedroom 28
3 Charlotte Rampling for Under The Sand 25

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
1 Steve Buscemi for Ghost World 55
2 Ben Kingsley for Sexy Beast 41
3 Brian Cox for L.I.E. 30

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
1 Helen Mirren for Gosford Park 57
2 Maggie Smith for Gosford Park 30
3 Marisa Tomei for In The Bedroom 22

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
1 In the Mood for Love, Christopher Doyle & Mark Li Ping-bin 37
2 Mulholland Drive, Peter Deming 19
3 The Man Who Wasn't There, Roger Deakins 16

EXPERIMENTAL AWARD
Waking Life directed by Richard Linklater

FILM HERITAGE AWARD
My Voyage to Italy directed by Martin Scorsese

SPECIAL CITATION "to Faith Hubley, who died in December 2001, for a career devoted to exploring animation's art and soul."