New York, Jan. 8, 2006 – Awards season has started, folks, and the New York Film Critics Circle Awards dinner was among the first of the many backrubs to come. Brokeback Mountain’s cranky Heath Ledger, apparently already tired of Oscar stomping, didn’t pick up his best actor award. Brokeback director Ang Lee told us it’s particularly nice to be recognized by the New York critics. “They’re tough”. Lee operates out of New York now, but Hong Kong-based director Wong Kar Wai made a rare stateside appearance for his best foreign language film, 2046. Steely Reese Witherspoon accepted her best actress accolade, but husband Ryan Phillippe was nowhere in sight. Ethan Hawke slipped into the dinner unnoticed. With Oscar buzz for Capote, the normally taciturn Philip Seymour Hoffman was affable, chattering away with reporters.