The National Board of Review has announced its list of winners for the 2008 awards season and Fox Searchlight’s “Slumdog Millionaire” is the big champ, taking down three awards including Best Film and a tie for Best Adapted Screenplay with Eric Roth’s “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.” Dev Patel also won the award for Breakthrough Performance by an Actor.
That tie for adapted screenplay does little to separate those two competitors at this point, both in that category and in the big race, which most concede is neck-and-neck at the moment. David Fincher also took the NBR’s Best Director award.
The immediate point of interest is the love for “Gran Torino.” Clint Eastwood seized the Best Actor trophy, perhaps the first in an upcoming slew of awards for the actor’s swan song performance, perhaps simply indicative of the NBR’s affinity for Warner Bros. product. Nick Schenk won the award for Best Original Screenplay, which will lead many to think this film is a major Oscar player. Hmm…
Another interesting tid-bit: Paramount Vantage was virtually shut out of the proceedings, with only a single mention for “Defiance” in the NBR top ten. Nothing for “Revolutionary Road.” But it is worth pointing out that “There Will Be Blood” was completely shut out of the group’s awards last year, and we all know how that turned out.
I think calling Viola Davis’s admittedly stunning performance in “Doubt” a “breakthrough” is a bit of a stretch considering how long the actress has been in the game, but the definition of that award shifts from year to year it seems.
And finally, after James Franco slipped into the Indie Spirit Award nominations for his supporting performance in “Milk,” Josh Brolin walks away with the win today in the same category. Who knows how it will turn out for Oscar? My bet is still on Brolin, who had a banner year with his performance here and in “W,” not to mention the left-over goodwill for his work in multiple films last year.
(Full list of winners after the jump.)
Best Film: “Slumdog Millionaire”
Best Director: David Fincher, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
Best Actor: Clint Eastwood, “Gran Torino”
Best Actress: Anne Hathaway, “Rachel Getting Married”
Best Supporting Actor: Josh Brolin, “Milk”
Best Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz, “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”
Best Foreign Film: “Mongol”
Best Documentary: “Man on Wire”
Best Animated Feature: “WALL-E”
Best Ensemble Cast: “Doubt”
Breakthrough Performance by an Actor: Dev Patel, “Slumdog Millionaire”
Breakthrough Performance by an Actress: Viola Davis, “Doubt”
Best Directorial Debut: Courtney Hunt, “Frozer River”
Best Original Screenplay: Nick Schenk, “Gran Torino”
Best Adapted Screenplay (tie): Simon Beaufoy, “Slumdog Millionaire” and Eric Roth, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
The top ten (in alphabetical order):
“Burn After Reading”
“Changeling”
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
“The Dark Knight”
“Defiance”
“Frost/Nixon”
“Gran Torino”
“Milk”
“WALL-E”
“The Wrestler”
Top five foreign films (in alphabetical order):
“Edge of Heaven”
“Let the Right One In”
“Roman de Gare”
“A Secret”
“Waltz with Bashir”
Top five documentary films (in alphabetical order):
“American Teen”
“The Betrayal”
“Dear Zachary”
“Encounters at the End of the World”
“Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired”
Top Ten Independent Films
“Frozen River”
“In Bruges”
“In Search of a Midnight Kiss”
“Mr. Foe”
“Rachel Getting Married”
“Snow Angels”
“Son of Rambow”
“Wendy and Lucy”
“Vicky Cristina Barcelona”
“The Visitor”
William K. Everson Film History Award: Molly Haskell, Andrew Sarris
Spotlight Award: Melissa Leo, “Frozen River,” Richard Jenkins, “The Visitor”
The BVLGARI Award for NPR Freedom of Expression: “Trumbo”
Comments
74 responses to “‘Slumdog,’ ‘Torino’ win big at NBR”
Strong showing by GRAN TORINO.
Score! WALL-E in the top ten!
Interesting……. Brolin for Best Supp. Actor over Heath and no Revolutionary Road for 10 best films.
I’m a little confused as to why Slumdog won best film but then is not included in the top ten films. So they’re really giving us the 11 best films?
Big showing for cint eastwood. Boring!
Sean Penn was robbed!
I’m sure I’m not the only one confused by what’s going on with “Gran Torino.” There’s been a lot of word since the screening that it’s some kind of disaster, and now… this.
What gives?
penelope cruz won for vcb! :)
heath ledger was robbed!
Remember that none of last year’s NBR winners for acting went on to win at the Oscars (but they all went on to be nominated). hmm…
So the Best Film, Best Foreign Film, and Best Documentary were not listed in the respective Top 10 or 5 lists? So are they actually the Top 2-11 and 2-6 lists?
Good for Viola Davis but Best Breakthrough Perfromance Award must be a little bit of a downer since she has been around for years and has a Tony under her belt.
No Heath Ledger…WHAAAAAAAAA?
Is there some technicality with the NBR that I’m not aware of that prohibits posthumous awards? That is very odd…
I’m pleased for “Slumdog,” but generally it strikes me as a fairly ho-hum set of winners.
It certainly doesn’t clear up the Oscar picture at all, but neither does it introduce any new possibilities.
Next!
Yay for Penelope Cruz! I think her performance has been one of the most unanimously praised and consistently lauded since Vicky Cristina Barcelona premiered at Cannes. Definitely deserved, although I find the omission of VCB from the Top 10 (/11) puzzling.
Its like always they are first out of the park with these. I remember the year All The Pretty Horses won for screenplay. A WTF moment.
Clint. Hilarious. I mean he’s just a tedious oscar machine. And no awards body will ever convince me he’s a better actor than Sean Penn.
Good list, but why did they not give s.actor to heath ledger! At least TDK made it to the top 10
YAWN.
Guy, the NBR have a huge Eastwoody :P. They always have. I mean, look at 2006, after all. I’m not altogether surprised.
But overall, I completely agree. These winners are dreadfully dull. But I think NBR is staying dry and is going back to their roots of not really representing the BIG picture.
Good for Brolin, but I still feel Franco has stronger resonance this season. But this could help them both get in, which would be very nice.
I dunno how they came up with that shitty Top 10 though. BAR is funny and all, but that’s crazy. Worse yet, of course, is Changeling and Defiance (I assume, but we’ll see).
Gran Torino winning for Screenplay means nothing. For example, 2006 again: The Painted Veil and Stranger Than Fiction won. They can be odd in this category.
The overall love baffles and bugs me too, but with the negative buzz, there’s still hope against it. I’ll be scared if it gets Globe nods though. Or an LAFCA/NYFCC mention….
ANNE HATHAWAY!!!!!!!!!
Heath Ledger not named Best Supporting Actor. What. The. Fuck.
Burn After Reading and Changeling the top ten films of the year? Give me a break!
Kris, I just read your commentary. What about Franco AND Brolin? It’s very plausible, especially if Milk receives lots of love. But I think Franco’s ISA, Satellite (lol, shhh), and other breakthrough mentions give him strength in the race. Still, both making the cut seems like a good bet.
Burn After Reading was a perfect black comedy.
Changeling was classic, old-school cinema.
Very pleased to see Hathaway get the win.
Updated with the just-released top 10 indies.
Burn After Reading? What the hell?
Why no I’ve Loved You So Long in foreign film?
In Bruges for Best Indie? I walked out.
This is clueless.
Screwy results. And rigged, as usual. Good for Hathaway and Brolin.
And why is Ledger’s absence such a profound shock? Contrary to commonly held belief, he did not give the only performance by an actor in a supporting role this year.
I don’t see why Heath Ledger should have won. I mean, seriously, his performance was great, but so were others.
Get over it. Just because he’s passed away, doesn’t mean no one else can win.
In Bruges is one of the best films of the year. So is Snow Angels. Nice to see them get recognized.
Oh, and shouldn’t it be “Roman de Gare”, or have NBR voters seen a different film with a strikingly similar title?
Horrific list of independent films.
I for one enjoyed the results. In fact, I can say I almost love it. “Gran Torino” is one of my most anticipated films and it’s nice to see it getting praise. And Clint winning for his acting was great. But people seem to forget that there were two films in that list that REALLY got the love: Slumdog Millionaire (which I particularly don’t care about) and-guess it- BENJAMIN BUTTON!
Fincher’s film has got to be THE movie I’m dying to watch this year, and it got three awards: Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and one of the Top 10 Movies of the Year. The NBR shows us that Slumdog, Benjamin Button, and Milk (Josh Brolin supporting? BEST AWARD OF THE NBR! I mean, come on guys, Heath doesn’t need this, he’s already nominated. I’m glad they finally gave Brolin’s tour de fource the praise it deserves) are basically “locks” for the Best Picture Oscar. And while it doesn’t really mean much that Revolutionary Road & The Reader were not among the Top 10 and The Dark Knight was…hell, I was thrilled about it. The Dark Knight for the 2009 Oscar. I still believe.
“Just because he’s passed away, doesn’t mean no one else can win.”
That’s not the issue at all, Chris. You’ll find little argument in many quarters that this performance is the best of the year.
Josh Brolin’s tour-de-force?!?!
Okay, he was great and all, but LOL. He was just a good, complex supporting character that was very limited in its expressions. That was hardly a “tour-de-force”, which, if anything is, it’d be his W. performance.
And Harmonica, Gran Torino also “really got the love”, as it has the same amount of recognition as TCCOBB: 3.
I know, Kris. But many people seem completely blinded by the fact that Ledger should win in acknowledging that other actors actually gave brilliant performances too.
Daniel Day-Lewis gave the best performance of 2007, but still nobody would have called a George Clooney win “odd” last year, unless they disliked “Michael Clayton”. I sense that this season will have many unfair treatment towards anyone winning a supporting actor award who isn’t Heath Ledger. And the only way I can explain that blindness to myself is by saying that people want Ledger to win, because he won’t have another chance to do so.
Jeez. I loved loved loved Ledger’s performance, and it does deserve to win, but there is nothing wrong with spreading the love in the precursors, ESPECIALLY when it goes to a deserving actor like Josh Brolin, who has been on fire like no one else recently.
Having a top ten indie list is somewhat ridiculous, although there are some damn fine films mentioned.
Slumdog vs. Button vs. Milk. I’d say Slumdog wins picture and Fincher wins director at the end of the day.
If Eastwood steals Rourke’s thunder, I’m gonna be pissed.
The problem is, no real supporting actor has touched Ledger this year. I’m no “TDK” fanboy, but I can say without hesitation that he’s better than anything else I’ve seen this year, especially Brolin. Brolin was easily overshadowed by Sean Penn and Emile Hirsch. Brolin’s Dan White was really just a much more benign version of his “American Gangster” character.
Oh, and Franco is utterly forgettable in it.
Yessss!!! Changelng Top 10!!!!
Zan, I’m glad I’m not alone in feeling that way about Brolin’s character. If not for the drunk scene, there wasn’t much to it, really. Penn stole every scene from him.
However, Franco = forgettable? BS, sir. He was great.
Major surprises:
1.Burn After Reading
2. Best Actress for Anne Hathaway
3. No Revolutionary Road, No Winslet.
4. Best Actor!!!??? Best Original Screenplay! No way…
5. No Heath…
Happy for Penelope and VCB making it into the Top Ten Indie… I like that list a lot more than the Top Ten.
And still waiting for a proper review of Gran Torino, Kris… Still think he’s the one to beat?
This Gran Torino thing is bad for Dark Knight. We’ve seen how WB is willing to throw cinematic lambs to the slaughter to feed the Eastwood machine before.
Call me crazy, but I’m feeling an Anne Hathaway win.
Please calm down. An NBR win does not always equate to an actress taking a prize.
We all know SAG, the Globe and BFCA are a better indication.
“Call me crazy, but I’m feeling an Anne Hathaway win.”
************
I think Anne Hathaway winning an Oscar is a long shot. She would be much better off just being nominated this year and continue building her career. I don’t deny she’s very good in Rachel Getting Married but it’s not an Oscar winning part at all. It’s more of a Laura Linney nominated part.
I know that Rob,
I just have a feeling..
I am so happy for Hathaway!!!!!! She gave one of the best performances this year.
I just hope the other awards do not forget the very memorable & brilliant supporting performance of Bill Irwin in “Rachel Getting Married”. It was perfection.
I disagree with any assessment of Brolin’s “Milk” turn as “nothing special.” I think it’s his finest work to date. He really got under the skin of what could have been a simple, boilerplate “villain” character. It’s all there in Milk’s dialogue, too: “I think he’s one of us.” It’s dropped in briefly but it’s sincere, and I think Brolin nailed those complexities.
The “drunk” scene was just icing on the cake, bu if that’s all you saw, you missed the best parts of the mixture
I’m ok with Changeling on the list. I thought it was an outstanding film, and the backlash is more because we’re using a Clint-o-meter to judge it. Australia does not really deserve to be there, and Frozen River, Rachel and Vicki Cristina got their due on the Indie list. There’s really not much left. I guess Happy Go Lucky would have been a better choice than Burn After Reading, but that’s more a matter of comedic taste. The list is pretty accurate on my book. I think Revolutionary Road probably ain’t that good. Sam Mendez has proven to be a mediocre director since American Beauty, and I think RR will ultimately flop at the box office and follow the path of the similarly titled Reservation Road.
I think Slumdog Millionaire has cemented its Best Picture nomination along with Milk and Benjamin Button. The final two slots are up for grabs. I think one slot will be a battle between Gran Torino and The Wrestler, and it depends on the box office reception of both. The final slot is a battle between The Dark Knight and Frost/Nixon, and depends on the box office success of the later. The Reader, Australia, RR are out of the race. You’ll see. They’re all gonna end up disappointing critically and box office-wise.
I think Clint and Anne have secured their nominations, but far from clinching the win. I think Brolin proves a compelling threat to Hedger’s posthumous Oscar. If someone’s gonna steal it from Ledger it’s him. I think Penelope won the Oscar already in my book. I still think Kirstin Scott Thomas deserves a win more than Hathaway, but a French-language actress just won so it’s tricky. I think Cate Blanchet or Meryl Streep will go home with the gold in the end, but an interesting race nonetheless. Nominees will be Melissa Leo, Anne Hathaway, Scott Thomas, Streep and Blanchet. With possibles including Jolie and Hawkins. It’s a great year for Best Actress!
Best Actor is gonna be Penn. Nominees will be Eastwood, Rourke, Langella and Pitt. Sorry Leo. With Rourke, Langella and Eastwood as very strong possibilities for an upset. But the relevance of Milk will push Sean Penn to his second Oscar.
Best director is the most unpredictable this year. It seems like it’s Boyle or Fincher. With Nolan and Arronofsky happy to be nominated. But I think Gus Van Sant will take home the gold. I think he’s more likable than Fincher as a person and Slumdog is a two director thing.
I think Slumdog or Benjamin Button are battling it for the big win, but The Dark Knight i think is being underestimated. I think Slumdog will take home the Adapted Screenplay, Milk the Original Screenplay, but The Dark Knight will be Best Picture. Button takes home all sorts of technical awards.
Major respect to them for recognizing “Burn After Reading,” easily one of the best, most devilishly fun and hysterical films of the year. Not to mention genius.
Well done.
A strange list but it shows the love for Wall-E too. The actors offer surprises mostly but won’t have any effect on the race IMO. The season has just officially begun but this says nothing except that Gran Torino is still a contender.
Unreal. Eastwood has been giving the same performance for 40 years. How any group of film critics, fans, followers or whatever they are, could award him “Best Actor” is so laughable. Penn, Langella, Rourke, Jenkins, and many others were robbed.
So was Heath Ledger and Kristin Scott-Thomas.
Chris, did you say that no one would have considered it odd if Clooney had beat out DDL last year. I distinctly remember reading an article a week or so before the awards where George himself jokingly conceded the award to DDL.
If DDL had lost that, the place would have erupted in boos.
Chris…I do not think that is the case at all…Ledger was unusually brilliant, the sort of performance like Day-Lewis last year we see only every few years — he should have won.
John, I think he will win plenty of awards this year. I’d imagine the Globe, BAFTA and Oscar as a start.
Burn after reading? REALLY!? that might have been the most disappointing movie I’ve seen so far this year. I will admit, there were some knockout scenes of laughter, but with that cast and crew i expected gold, and got popcorn.
as for Brolin in Milk: he’s good, but as far as I’m concerned, Franco is the standout supporting role. I just felt Dan White was way underwritten. I’d nominate both personally, but if i had to choose i’d choose Franco.