The New York Press Association announced the winners of its annual Best Newspaper Contest this past weekend, and four alt-weeklies were in the mix. The Long Island Press took home nine awards, including first-place wins for Coverage of Elections/Politics; News Story; and Sports Feature. The New York Press won five total awards, including firsts for Coverage of Business, Financial & Economic News; Coverage of Crime/Police/Courts; Feature Story; and Best Use of Color. Syracuse New Times won five awards as well, including a first-place finish in the Editorial Cartoon category. Ithaca Times took home four awards, including a first-place nod for Best Column.

Continue ReadingFour AAN Members Take Home 23 New York Press Association Awards

White uses most of his space in this week's New York Press review of Greenberg to reflect on the controversy that spilled out last week over his being disinvited from the film's screening. The snub, which was the subject of much chatter among New York film and media types, was allegedly due to White's calling for the mother of Greenberg director Noah Baumbach to have an abortion. As this allegation was debated on the web, Village Voice critic J. Hoberman dug up a copy of the review, which wasn't available online, from the public library and posted it online in a post titled "Proof That Critic Armond White Did Call for Noah Baumbach's Abortion." (By the way, Baumbach's mother, Georgia Brown, was a Voice film critic in the 1980s.) That gesture was not looked upon kindly by White, who contends that Hoberman "deliberately mischaracterized the review," before attacking the longtime Voice critic for "normaliz[ing] the arrogance of class privilege" and calling him "a force behind racist snobbery" and "the scoundrel-czar of contemporary film criticism." MORE: Hoberman responds.

Continue ReadingArmond White Talks ‘Greenberg’ Snub, Attacks Village Voice Critic

Despite rumors that were flying around the web yesterday, the controversial film critic has not been banned from seeing a screening of director Noah Baumbach's latest film. "He has RSVP'd for Friday afternoon," Baumbach publicist Leslee Dart tells the Village Voice. "I made a decision, not the filmmaker, that based on the horrible comments he's made about Noah personally -- like how his mother should have had an abortion and how he's never met him, but he's an asshole -- I made a decision that he shouldn't be one of the first critics to see the film." IFC.com's Independent Eye blog has more on the backstory involving White and Baumbach's mother, Georgia Brown, who reviewed movies for the Voice in the 1980s. MORE from New York and Movieline.com.

Continue ReadingNew York Press’ Armond White Will See ‘Greenberg’ Screening