National Board of Review

BEST PICTURE
Up in the Air

Top Eleven of 2009:
An Education
(500) Days of Summer
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Invictus
The Messenger
A Serious Man
Star Trek
Up
Where the Wild Things Are

BEST DIRECTOR
Clint Eastwood, Invictus

BEST ACTOR (tie)
George Clooney, Up in the Air
Morgan Freeman, Invictus

BEST ACTRESS
Carey Mulligan, An Education

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Woody Harrelson, The Messenger

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
A Serious Man-- Ethan Coen & Joel Coen

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Up in the Air-- Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Up

BEST FOREIGN FILM
The Prophet

Top Six Foreign Films:
The Maid
Revanche
Song of Sparrows
Three Monkeys
The White Ribbon

BEST DOCUMENTARY
The Cove

Top Six Documentaries:
Burma Vj: Reporting From a Closed Country
Crude
Food, Inc.
Good Hair
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg & the Pentagon Papers

BEST ENSEMBLE
It's Complicated

BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCES
Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker
Gabourey Sidibe, Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire

SPOTLIGHT AWARD FOR DIRECTORIAL DEBUT (tie)
Duncan Jones, Moon
Oren Moverman, The Messenger
Marc Webb, (500) Days of Summer

SPECIAL FILMMAKING ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Wes Anderson, Fantastic Mr. Fox

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AWARD
Burma Vj: Reporting From a Closed Country
Invictus
The Most Dangerous Man in the America: Daniel Ellsberg & the Pentagon Papers

Top Ten Independent Films:
Amreeka
District 9
Goodbye Solo
Humpday
In the Loop
Julia
Me & Orson Welles
Moon
Sugar
Two Lovers


And there you have it; the official start of the season. I was for the most part wrong, thinking strangely that Up in the Air wouldn't really come into the picture until the Golden Globes, but clearly it has taken control of the momentum (I plan to see it tomorrow), and surprisingly swept the NBR (picture, actor, supporting actress, screenplay)-- that's a sweep for NBR, which has always been a more share the love critics community. Boosted indefinitely are the profiles of Carey Mulligan, and more significantly Woody Harrelson (I'm really going to have to catch The Messenger; it's quietly becoming a forminable contender.) Again the NBR slobbered over Clint Eastwood (not shocking and frankly a bit boring), but ignored the Weinsteins (nothing for Nine or A Single Man-- both of which I thought had great NBR potential.)

Also snubbed everywhere: The Lovely Bones, The Last Station and Bright Star-- they're profiles are dwindling. Notable that Precious was snubbed everywhere except breakthrough performance, was that a mistake or is it not as strong a contender as believed.

Got to love they're curves that will probably lead nowhere:

-It's Complicated for best ensemble, ok!

-Three best directorial debuts is a bit pushing it, even if the three films in question are worthy.

-District 9 is considered an independent picture, odd seeing as it has a big studio distributor (Sony), a very non-independent producer (Peter Jackson), opened on a begillion screens--a movie with a $30 million budget is considered independent these days-- really?

-Star Trek and Where the Wild Things Are making their top top- I mean eleven- totally cool choices, Oscar won't bite however-- thanks for the few bits of individualism NBR!

Now a word of advice to the onslaught of critics groups taking over my life in the next couple of months: please follow your heart, and don't be swayed by the temptation of Oscar group think-- make your own choices (I don't care if I don't like them-- I love that too); I don't want to a see a list like this when again (not that it's bad), follow your heart, and keep the conversation of film going. Thank You!