The National Board of Review has named Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air as the top film of 2009. The New-York based organization is traditionally the first to announce their picks for the year’s best and they like the Paramount picture starring George Clooney, which conveniently opens this weekend in limited release.
Aside from best feature, the film won three other awards. Clooney picked up best actor in a tie with Morgan Freeman of Invictus, supporting actress went to Anna Kendrick, and Reitman received kudos for the adapted screenplay (my favorite script).
Other notables: Clint Eastwood was recognized as the best director for Invictus (NBR liked him last year for Gran Torino), Carey Mulligan for best actress in An Education, and documentary front-runner The Cove won. The biggest surprises were Woody Harrelson winning best supporting actor for The Messenger and Star Trek on their top 10 of the year. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the hell out of J.J. Abrams’ lens-flared reboot, but is it top ten material?
The NBR isn’t always the most sound indicator of who will win the Academy Award, though. Since 1965, the organization has named the eventual “Best Picture” 29 times in their annual top ten lists. 12 of those times the top NBR film won the Oscar, including 2007′s No Country for Old Men and 2008′s Slumdog Millionaire.
They actually choose 11 films after picking their favorite and ten others. Here they are, plus all the other awards they dished out:
Film: “Up in the Air”
Ten Best Films (in alphabetical order)
- “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”
Director: Clint Eastwood, “Invictus”
Actor: George Clooney, “Up in the Air”
Morgan Freeman, “Invictus”
Actress: Carey Mulligan, “An Education”
Supporting Actor: Woody Harrelson, “The Messenger”
Supporting Actress: Anna Kendrick, “Up in the Air”
Foreign Language Film: “A Prophet”
Documentary:“The Cove”
Animated Feature: “Up”
Ensemble Cast: “It’s Complicated”
Breakthrough Performance by an Actor: Jeremy Renner, “The Hurt Locker”
Breakthrough Performance by an Actress: Gabourey Sidibe, “Precious”
Spotlight Award for Best Directorial Debut: Duncan Jones, “Moon”
Oren Moverman, “The Messenger”
Marc Webb, “(500) Days Of Summer”
Original Screenplay: Joel and Ethan Coen, A Serious Man
Adapted Screenplay: Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner, Up in the Air
Special Filmmaking Achievement Award: Wes Anderson, the Fantastic Mr. Fox
William K. Everson Film History Award: Jean Picker Firstenberg
NBR Freedom Of Expression: “Burma Vj: Reporting From A Closed Country”
“Invictus”
“The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellseberg and the Pentagon Papers”
Five Best Foreign-Language Films (in alphabetical order)
- “The Maid”
- “Revanche”
- “Song Of Sparrows”
- “Three Monkeys”
- “The White Ribbon”
Five Best Documentaries (in alphabetical order)
- “Burma VJ: Reporting From A Closed Country”
- “Crude”
- “Food, Inc.”
- “Good Hair”
- “The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers”
Top Ten Independent Films (in alphabetical order)
- “Amreeka”
- “District 9″
- “Goodbye Solo”
- “Humpday”
- “In the Loop”
- “Julia”
- “Me and Orson Welles”
- “Moon”
- “Sugar”
- “Two Lovers”
