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Katheryn Bigelow‘s hunt-for-bin Laden pic has won the National Board of Review‘s Best Film honor, its second victory in three days after New York Film Critics Circle voted it the year’s top film Monday. Bigelow also repeated her NYFCC Best Director win and Zero Dark Thirty‘s Jessica Chastain won Best Actress from the group, comprised of a select group of film enthusiasts, filmmakers, professionals, academics and students who watch more than 250 films throughout the year. The Weinstein Company’s Silver Linings Playbook also showed well in today’s announcement, taking Best Actor for Bradley Cooper and Best Adapted Screenplay for writer-director David O. Russell. Leonardo DiCaprio won Best Supporting Actor for Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained, and Compliance‘s Ann Dowd won Best Supporting Actress.
Zero Dark Thirty has been under the microscope from the beginning, with some groups claiming that Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal were given access to classified documents by the Obama administration while making the film, which chronicles the manhunt that led to the eventual killing of Osama bin Laden in a Navy SEAL raid. The filmmakers have denied they received such info. The Sony war drama, which stars Chastain, Chris Pratt and Joel Edgerton, will be released in the U.S. on December 19 and now has plenty of momentum as awards season kicks into high gear. Bigelow and Boal’s previous film, the war drama The Hurt Locker, won six Oscars in 2010 including Best Picture, and made Jeremy Renner a star.
Last year, the NRB voted Hugo its Best Film, with the Martin Scorsese 3D fantasy going on to earn an Oscar nomination.
The National Board of Review’s awards will be handed out January 8 at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York City in a gala hosted by Meredith Vieira. Here is the complete list of today’s winners, which includes the NBR’s top lists of films in several categories in alphabetical order:
Best Film: ZERO DARK THIRTY
Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow, ZERO DARK THIRTY
Best Actor: Bradley Cooper, SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK
Best Actress: Jessica Chastain, ZERO DARK THIRTY
Best Supporting Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio, DJANGO UNCHAINED
Best Supporting Actress: Ann Dowd, COMPLIANCE
Best Original Screenplay: Rian Johnson, LOOPER
Best Adapted Screenplay: David O. Russell, SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK
Best Animated Feature: WRECK-IT RALPH
Special Achievement in Filmmaking: Ben Affleck, ARGO
Breakthrough Actor: Tom Holland, THE IMPOSSIBLE
Breakthrough Actress: Quvenzhané Wallis, BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD
Best Directorial Debut: Benh Zeitlin, BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD
Best Foreign Language Film: AMOUR
Best Documentary: SEARCHING FOR SUGARMAN
William K. Everson Film History Award: 50 YEARS OF BOND FILMS
Best Ensemble: LES MISÉRABLES
Spotlight Award: John Goodman (ARGO, FLIGHT, PARANORMAN, TROUBLE WITH THE CURVE)
NBR Freedom of Expression Award: CENTRAL PARK FIVE
NBR Freedom of Expression Award: PROMISED LAND
Top Films
(in alphabetical order)
ARGO
BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD
DJANGO UNCHAINED
LES MISÉRABLES
LINCOLN
LOOPER
THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER
PROMISED LAND
SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK
Top 5 Foreign Language Films
(in alphabetical order)
BARBARA
THE INTOUCHABLES
THE KID WITH A BIKE
NO
WAR WITCH
Top 5 Documentaries
(in alphabetical order)
AI WEIWEI: NEVER SORRY
DETROPIA
THE GATEKEEPERS
THE INVISIBLE WAR
ONLY THE YOUNG
Top 10 Independent Films
(in alphabetical order)
ARBITRAGE
BERNIE
COMPLIANCE
END OF WATCH
HELLO I MUST BE GOING
LITTLE BIRDS
MOONRISE KINGDOM
ON THE ROAD
QUARTET
SLEEPWALK WITH ME
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Matthew McConaughey, Best Supporting Actor (NY Film Critics)
Bradley Cooper, Best Actor
If these are the best that Hollywood has to offer these days, then the Hollywood is in a world of trouble.
CynicalCritic , I hear Samuel L. Jackson & Christoph Waltz steal the show in Django Unchained- not Leo DiCaprio. To be fair, Matthew McConaughey had a pretty good year. He not only portrayed different characters, but he also gave solid performances. I give him credit for that.
Did you see either of those movies. Specifically Silver Linings, which is clearly one of the best films of the year, with spectacular performances from everyone involved.
I have a feeling you only saw Bradley in the Hangover.
Bradley Cooper is amazing in Silver Linings Playbook. Completely deserving. And Matthew McCounaughy has had an amazing year with varied quality performances in multiple films.
Watch the films before posting ignorant comments. Both actors are deserving.
Whom would you have chosen instead? Both of these actors are, besides talented, “p o p u l a r.” Are you saying that successful actors/actresses should not be considered for awards? Isn’t that particular view somewhat antiquated? It’s 2012 after all…
Love the LOOPER and Leonardo wins. Zero Dark Thirty is looking like it might steamroll if it keeps this up.
Haven’t see Zero, but the rest looks like it was voted by people who hide under the seats at the local multiplex. Wreck it Ralph, Bradley Cooper…ugh.
Agreed.
Bradley Cooper sucked in SILVER LININGS. Felt like I was Bradley Cooper acting crazy, not an actual character.
Fell asleep at least twice in that movie.
Does this mean Perks and Promised Land were actually the “best” of the indie films?
The fact that they gave the empty and miscalculated LOOPER best screenplay pretty much blows any reputation they might have given other winners. If that’s what they consider great, then they can’t be trusted.
Your comment blows your reputation. If that’s what you consider empty and miscalculated then you can’t be trusted. Your lonely shitty opinion doesn’t mean anything. I’m sorry.
Did you read it… or watch it? There is a reason why there are separate awards for best film and best screenplay.
I catch your drift, but most people who vote on these things don’t read the screenplay…they extrapolate (maybe that’s the right word) the screenplay from the viewing of the movie. Best script I read a few years back was ‘Source Code’…but there’s no way I could give that a best screenplay award considering how mediocre the movie was. I kinda think the same applies to ‘Looper’.
Really? Well, I read the script before I saw the film and thought it had huge, huge problems. The story is episodic and requires a reboot every couple of scenes, with several long-winded scenes that feature swarms of (OK-written) exposition to propel the narrative. The film also suffers from odd tonal shifts (like the older Joe KILLING A CHILD and then pulling some cool/awesome moves to kill the rest of the Loopers. I am sorry, but a character can’t kill children and then still be super-awesome). And what’s with the psychic powers? Yeah, I get it: the writer wanted to establish that the child had powers beyond those of the other characters, but I don’t understand why he coulnd’t have incorporated the child’s powers in a more organic way to the central concept (time travel). It felt like Johnson was putting a hat on another hat with the psychic element of the story.
I really do not understand how the National Board of Review reward original screenplays, because some of the previous winners have suffer from serious script problems that have hampered the finished film like Buried and Gran Torino.
Hat’s off to you. This group is lame. Hugo was atrocious, Silver Linings Playbook cloying and trite with an utterly unnuanced performance by Cooper, who should stick with Hangover smarminess he excels at.
I am po’d that Denzel Washington, who gave one of the bravest and best performances is overlooked in the acting nom category. WTF? Glad that Beasts is getting some love. But I’m afraid and I’ve been all over the message boards about this — afraid that the OSCARS is going to be LILLY white again, as far as nominations go.
I don’t know who these critics are that keep giving FLIGHT thumbs up.
That was an after school special at best. I don’t care if the performance was good — the script and film certainly were not.
Sally’s gripe is that DW’s performance was overlooked. Even if FLIGHT left something to be desired script-wise or execution-wise, DW’s performance was brilliant; when it comes to the acting nods, that’s all that should matter.
Wow The Master is a total dud. I don’t see it getting nominated for any Oscars. Wonder if PTA will recover.
Nope, I don’t think PTA will recover. I mean, he directed an amazingly haunting performance from Joaquin, and many many critics and audiences noted that. But I’m sure because PTA’s film doesn’t happen to garner any of these popularity award contests b/c the masses are too stupid to “get it” that his career is completely over. I’m sure Hollywood, and actors will just completely forget BOOGIE NIGHTS, MAGNOLIA, and THERE WILL BE BLOOD.
Great comment there, Poncho!
Get a hint. His movies are flops. The Master won’t get nominated for anything. People hate the movie. Maybe he’ll figure out how to write a story next.
Wow – THE MASTER, totally shafted?
Every year… the last movie these critics saw is the best movie these critics saw.
Not remotely true – The Artist, The Descendants, The Social Network, The Hurt Locker, United 93, many other best film winners from this group were seen often months before the awards.
And if that were true this year, The Hobbit and Django Uprising were seen after ZD30.
if you see hangover movies – go away. if you stayed awake in spiderman the movie, go away. if you think lincoln was even good – go away.
now you two, can stay.
Agree 1000% most overrated film this year really wanted to like it
Why is On The Road even considered in one of the list. I think this film is so mediocre and there are tons of other amazing indies that are so much deserving than this forgettable film.
Ann Dowd pic is spot on. She delivers a great performance in Compliance,which at first blush pissed me off because I thought it was lazy screenwriting plot wise, until I looked up the story online and found out it all happened, hard to believe, but it’s true.
Looper Movie is awesome.right Choice best screenplay.
Cloud Atlas. The most ambitious, transcendent independent film of the year, and not even a mention. Yet, somehow, Looper is a “Top Film” of 2012? What? OK, I realize that some people out there may not like the movie for whatever their particular reason may be, but it will definitely find it’s place one day, and it will be recognized as one of the best films of this decade. The fact that the National Board of Review considers a film like Looper more worthy of recognition than Cloud Atlas (and not even mentioning it as one of the “Top 10 Independent Films”!) is completely ludicrous. Talk about being on the wrong side of history. There is simply no comparison between these two films. Simply put, Cloud Atlas is this generation’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. And Looper? It is anything but.