Gotham crix move vote to 1st position

The NY Film Critics Circle announced Wednesday that they will hold their annual vote on Nov. 28, leapfrogging it ahead of two other orgs to become the first critics group to announce its picture of the year during the fourth-quarter awards frenzy. Not only does the change knock the National Board of Review to second place in the critics queue, but it places NYFCC's 2011 Film Critics Circle Awards a day ahead of the Film Independent Spirit Awards nominations. The Los Angeles critics traditionally weigh in around mid-December. "As the nations pre-eminent critic's group, we are excited about kicking off the annual end-of-year discussion with our new early voting date," chairman John Anderson said in a statement. Most awards prognosticators look to the various critics groups for some indication of a film's Oscar potential, despite a history of divergent opinions -- most notably last year, when "The King's Speech" won best picture after "The Social Network" was a resounding winner among critics. Contact Christy Grosz at christy.grosz@variety.com