“American Hustle,’’ a comedy caper loosely inspired by a 1970s political bribery scandal, gained Oscar traction Tuesday as it won the first major best picture award of the season, as well as two others, from the prestigious New York Film Critics Circle.
“Hustle’’ — also cited for supporting actress Jennifer Lawrence and its script — narrowly topped the period drama “12 Years a Slave’’ in an extraordinary sixth round of balloting (including one that was disqualified on a technicality).
The final vote of the day, from which proxies were excluded, took place after several members had left the awards voting meeting at Lincoln Center, which lasted just over five hours.
In the earlier vote on best director, though, Steve McQueen of “12 Years’’ triumphed over David O. Russell of “Hustle’’ by a healthy margin. The star of “12 Years,’’ the heavily favored Chiwetel Ejiofor, lost the critics’ vote in a romp by surprise winner Robert Redford, who appears alone as a man adrift at sea on a crippled yacht in “All is Lost.’’
Most of the other winners more predictably followed critical consensus, with Cate Blanchett snagging best actress honors for her tour de force as a deranged alcoholic in Woody Allen’s “Blue Jasmine.’’ Jared Leto won best supporting actor for his acclaimed performance as a dying drag queen in the AIDS drama “Dallas Buyers Club.’’
The foreign language picture award went to France’s controversial lesbian love story “Blue is the Warmest Color,’’ while the group honored the World War II animated bio-pic “The Wind Rises,’’ by retiring Japanese master Hayao Miyazaki.
Martin Scorsese’s highly-anticipated “The Wolf of Wall Street,’’ the last film screened for the group, was perhaps the day’s biggest loser. Other high-profile Oscar contenders that went home empty-handed include “Gravity,’’ “Frozen,’’ “Saving Mr. Banks,’’ “August: Osage County,’’ “The Butler’’ and “Philomena.’’
“Inside Llewyn Davis’’ won only for its cinematography while another specialty-film that collected votes in multiple categories, “Nebraska,’’ triumphed in none of them.
The award for documentary went to Sarah Polley’s autobiographical “Stories We Tell,’’ while Ryan Coogler won the prize for first film for “Fruitvale Station.’’
The New York Film Critics Circle, which will present its awards on Jan. 6, sometimes predicts Oscar winners — though its top winner, last year, “Zero Dark Thirty,’’ did not go the distance.
The group’s 38 members include The Post’s Lou Lumenick and Kyle Smith, as well as our freelance reviewer Farran Smith Nehme.