Scorsese’s “Hugo” Named Best Film of the Year by the National Board of Review
I very rarely agree 100% with the NBR, but this year’s list is pretty decent, though I still need to see a handful of their choices.. They always include Eastwood, no matter what the consensus is on his films, though. I still haven’t seen J. Edgar, so I can’t comment just yet. I’m happy to see Drive on their list, but a little miffed to see the final Harry Potter on there, because from a stand-alone film point-of-view it failed miserably.
Best Film: Hugo
Best Director: Martin Scorsese, Hugo
Best Actor: George Clooney, The Descendants
Best Actress: Tilda Swinton, We Need to Talk About Kevin
Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer, Beginners
Best Supporting Actress: Shailene Woodley, The Descendants
Best Original Screenplay: Will Reiser, 50/50
Best Adapted Screenplay: Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash, The Descendants
Best Animated Feature: Rango
Breakthrough Performance: Felicity Jones, Like Crazy
Breakthrough Performance: Rooney Mara, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Debut Director: J.C. Chandor, Margin Call
Best Ensemble: The Help
Spotlight Award: Michael Fassbender (A Dangerous Method, Jane Eyre, Shame, X-Men: First Class)
NBR Freedom of Expression: Crime After Crime
NBR Freedom of Expression: Pariah
Best Foreign Language Film: A Separation
Best Documentary: Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory
Special Achievement in Filmmaking: The Harry Potter Franchise – A Distinguished Translation from Book
to Film
Top Films (in alphabetical order)
The Artist
The Descendants
Drive
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
The Ides of March
J. Edgar
Tree of Life
War Horse
Top 5 Foreign Language Films (In Alphabetical Order)
13 Assassins
Elite Squad: The Enemy Within
Footnote
Le Havre
Point Blank
Top 5 Documentaries (In Alphabetical Order)
Born to be Wild
Buck
George Harrison: Living in the Material World
Project Nim
Senna
Top 10 Independent Films (In Alphabetical Order)
50/50
Another Earth
Beginners
A Better Life
Cedar Rapids
Margin Call
Shame
Take Shelter
We Need To Talk About Kevin
Win Win
[source]
Posted on December 1, 2011, in Precursors and tagged Christopher Plummer, Felicity Jones, George Clooney, Hugo, Martin Scorsese, Michael Fassbender, Rooney Mara, the National Board of Review, Tilda Swinton. Bookmark the permalink. 4 Comments.
the diary of a film history fanatic 
Interesting start to the season over the last two days, and the fact that we are already side-stepping one film running the table leaves me intrigued as it means that we’re in for a race with a little bit of intrigue.
By the by – you interested in doing The Oscar Nominees episode of my podcast again this year? Haven’t decided any particulars for it, but I’m trying to see who might be up for it.
always up for it, I had a blast last year.
and are you referring to Moneyball? I still haven’t seen it (I have an aversion to baseball), but I hear a lot of chatter about it being ignored.
Not so much MONEYBALL (I’m not a fan). Just that when you look at last year when SOCIAL NETWORK was taking everything in sight, it took a lot of the intrigue out until that about-face for THE KING’S SPEECH in the final days.
I like to have a bit of intrigue to the whole thing…
Why is there not a ‘Best Music’ from a film category? If there was, I would recommend the music from the musical saw scene in ‘Another Earth’. You can hear it on the composer’s website http://www.scottmunsonmusic.com/news/music-in-film-another-earth-soundtrack