New York critics pick "Zero Dark Thirty" as best film

Director Kathryn Bigelow, who won an Oscar for the movie ''The Hurt Locker'' and whose current film ''Zero Dark Thirty'' is about the U.S. operation to kill Osama bin Laden, arrives with Venezuelan actor Edgar Ramirez (C) and screenwriter Mark Boal at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences 4th annual Governors Awards in Hollywood December 1, 2012.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The New York Film Critics Circle on Monday picked action thriller "Zero Dark Thirty" as best film and gave its top acting honors to Daniel Day-Lewis and Rachel Weisz in the first major movie awards leading up to Hollywood's Oscars.

U.S. filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow won best director for "Zero Dark Thirty," based on the decade-long U.S. operation to hunt down and kill Osama bin Laden, and billed as a cinematic look at "the greatest manhunt in history."

The organization announced the awards via Twitter.

(Reporting by Christine Kearney; Editing by Leslie Gevirtz)