LOS ANGELES - Steven Spielberg‘s World War Two film "Saving Private Ryan," was named 1998‘s best movie by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, making it an early favourite for Best Picture honours at the Academy Awards later this year. The movie, about a platoon‘s search for a missing soldier after D-Day, also earned Spielberg the best director‘s award and Janusz Kaminski the honour for best cinematography from the Los Angeles-based association of critics. The group named Sir Ian McKellen best actor for "Gods and Monsters", a film about the friendship struck between a young gardener (Brendan Fraser) and an ageing, openly gay film director James Whale (McKellen). "Private Ryan" and "Gods", favourites among critics, are becoming the leading choices for the Oscars, the U.S. film industry‘s top honours. They will be awarded in March by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles.