Oscar-nomics: NBR Awards

Words cannot describe the awesomeness of this picture

Hey everyone, so today was the National Board of Review Awards (or the NBR awards). Again, its a little early to make out true frontrunners, but considering every award wants to be the first out of the gate, have to start somewhere. Here are the winners:

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, Nat Faxon, & Jim Rash, The Descendants

Best Animated Feature: Rango

Best Foreign Language Film: A Separation

Best Documentary: Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory

Best Ensemble: The Help

Breakthrough Performance: Felicity Jones, Like Crazy / Rooney Mara, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Spotlight Award: Michael Fassbender (A Dangerous Method, Jane Eyre, Shame,X-Men: First Class)

Debut Director: J.C. Chandor, Margin Call

NBR Freedom of Expression: Crime After Crime / Pariah

Special Achievement in Filmmaking: The Harry Potter Franchise for a distinguished translation from book to film

Top Films
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
The Tree of Life
War Horse

Top 5 Foreign Language Films
13 Assassins
Elite Squad: The Enemy Within
Footnote
Le Havre
Point Blank

Top 5 Documentaries
Born to be Wild
Buck
George Harrison: Living in the Material World
Project Nim
Senna

Top 10 Independent Films
50/50
Another Earth
Beginners
A Better Life
Cedar Rapids
Margin Call
Shame
Take Shelter
We Need To Talk About Kevin
Win Win



Overall Thoughts: Kind of surprised by the Hugo win, but not as surprised by the acting wins. This is Clooney's 3rd win, the other two failed to get Oscar gold however (kiss of death?). With the NBR having a bad  track record of aligning with Best Picture (2/10 for the past decade, and the other categories haven't fared well either), I'm not going to back Hugo just yet, or any other choice for right now (even Tree of Life at this point). Surprised there is no love for Woody Allen, but J. Edgar (which critics were meh about), made the cut. Breakout performances were a bit of a surprise, I am now even more excited for Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (if that is even possible). Glad to see Michael Fassbender get some recognition, hopefully he will have a good run this awards season. All in all, a fair choice in each category, lets hope the fact that winning an NBR doesn't hurt their chances in the long rung (to hell with history at this point, I want to see a Plummer/Brooks showdown, that'd be something, wouldn't it?).


Oh, and two more thoughts: great to see Harry Potter finally recognized, hopefully this will carry some good will for it come Oscar season. Also, great list for Indie films, but no love for Martha Marcy May Marlene, what's up with that?