The National Board of Review announcement is historically considered the “official” start of the film awards season, but with things like the Gotham Awards, Indie Spirit nominations and even the Hollywood Film Awards creeping more and more into mid-fall, this doesn’t seem to be the case anymore.
Today the organization announced winners in the usual categories, winners to be honored at a New York ceremony in January. Last year the organization picked “Up in the Air” as its Best Film winner, greatly solidifying the buzz of early December 2009. This year, they’ve gone with David Fincher’s “The Social Network.”
The film also took home awards for Best Director (David Fincher), Best Actor (Jesse Eisenberg), Best Adapted Screenplay (Aaron Sorkin). Most exciting for me is to see that Lesley Manville won Best Actress for her performance in “Another Year.” The flames seemed to be dying as of late. Christian Bale and Jacki Weaver won in the supporting races for “The Fighter” and “Animal Kingdom,” respectively.
I was happy to see pop up on the group’s top 10 list (which does not include its Best Film winner). Dante Ferretti’s production design from the film was also award. And it’s interesting to note that “The Town” took the Best Ensemble Cast award in addition to having a presence on the top 10.
Perhaps most eyebrow-raising was Chris Sparling’s Best Original Screenplay win for “Buried.” And most certainly it’s stunning to note that “Black Swan,” “The Kids Are All Right” and “127 Hours” were all shut out of the awards entirely. But I’ll let you mull the winners over yourself. Check out the full list at The Circuit.
[Photo: Columbia Pictures]
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86 responses to “‘Social Network’ wins big with NBR”
NBR last year had me in the dumps, but now I’m as giddy as a schoolgirl. Manville’s performance is my favorite of the year, and she succeeded in both the hilarity and heartbreak of her role in spaaaades over someone like Annette Bening this year. I was just thinking last night about how great Jesse Eisenberg was in TSN by communicating emotions to the audience that his own character was incapable of expressing. The Jacki Weaver choice is outstanding, as well, considering it’s an independent Australian production that’s barely been seen here. Christian Bale I could see coming from miles away. I do wish they could have kept the Breakthrough Male category to reward Andrew Garfield, but I didn’t think that they’d also give the film Director/Actor so I guess they didn’t wanna pile it on…
Wow. Wasn’t expecting “Buried” to take it home.
“Buried” for Best Original Screenplay is confounding.
What a snooze! Jesus these are boring! Everybody and their mother knew Social Newtwork was probably gonna win this. Adapted Screenplay & Director are also tied up.
The one intesring choice they made is Original Screenplay and Weaver/Esienberg got a leg up.
Even Foriegn Language and Documentary picks are safe.
Excellent to see Manville and Eisenberg win. Hopefully the momentum swings their way a little.
I would argue that some people’s mothers thought this was going to “The King’s Speech,” red_wine.
Really sorry the site has been down for so long, guys. Major traffic bottleneck. Hoping I can settle the issue so that it doesn’t happen throughout the season.
Ecstatic for Manville. Hopefully this can catapault/solidify her into BA.
Still hoping for a Bening/Portman/Kidman/Manville/Williams.
Or Moore.
And most certainly it’s stunning to note that “Black Swan,” “The Kids Are All Right” and “127 Hours” were all shut out of the awards entirely.
But hey, at least we got “Shutter Island” and “Hereafter”, right?
Hmmm…
I talked to everyone’s mother, and she thought The King’s Speech was going to win this. Must be a different everyone.
Yeah, I don’t think it was obvious that TSN would win. And besides, TSN is a great movie. Hopefully other awards groups, like NYFCC and LAFCA won’t dismiss it merely to avoid repeating the NBR’s choice. I haven’t seen enough films yet to say if TSN is indeed the best of the year, but they could have done much worse.
We see if The Social Network sweeps the critics now or if rival from the True Grit, 127 Hours, Black Swan emegers to pick off a few here or there. The Kings Speech needs to globels now to kick start it back up for Picture anyway..
Wow, I’m shocked that The King’s Speech didn’t take it. But then again, like I commented in the preview post the other day, while NBR love period dramas more than most, they did snub both The English Patient and Shakespeare in Love. Considering those two films both went on to take home Best Picture, maybe this is a good omen for The King’s Speech at the Oscars?
Interesting choices all around, especially the acting choices where on Bale seems like an obvious choice. The Town winning for ensemble and Buried for screenplay are interesting, unexpected choices as well. Certainly a good start to the season, just by the fact that most of their picks weren’t what most of us expected.
The only really odd thing is the complete and utter lack of love for The Kids Are All Right. It didn’t make the mainstream top ten or the indie top ten. That’s a whole lot of movies they put ahead of it, some rather questionable picks among them. Very strange. 127 Hours didn’t get a mention either, although I find that film more understandably dividing.
Lesley Manville!! WOW! That’s brilliant. She should win the Oscar, in my humble opinion.
How could they give it to Qatar? It’s the size of Connecticut and 110 degrees!
Sooo happy about Jacki Weaver. Thrilled. The acting wins here are probably about as good as we’re likely to get this season.
While I fully expect The Social Network to be the major darling with critics groups, it is somewhat a surprise that NBR picked it, given their more traditional leanings. Heck, you can even see that this year with choices like Hereafter (although in that case they’re simply Eastwood starfuckers to the highest order, only Sasha Stone of Awards Daily can rival them) and the exclusion of “edgier” fare like Black Swan and 127 Hours.
But damn, if even NBR goes for The Social Network you gotta wonder if any other critics group will be able to pick something else.
Shutter Island doesn’t belong in the same breath as Hereafter, Maxim.
Nor does it belong in the same breath as the other movies I’ve listed, Kris.
Which was the point.
Shia Labeouf gave a better performance in Wall Street 2 than Eisenberg did. I thought he was very good too.
Still think Leo D in Shutter Island and Ben Stiller in Greenberg gave the best performances by a male lead so far
The Shutter Isalnd mention bugs me too. I liked the premise, the ending was clever, and the acting was good. However, I thought the whole thing was spastic and not in a good way. The major problem seems to be a lack of any story for the middle 3/5 and not knowing what the hell is going on or why it is going on. I’d like to hear from supporters to explain what they found to be so good what I and others found as sloppy and impenetrable.
All you need to know about the legitimacy of the NBR’s is this:
Buried over Inception for Original Screenplay. Are you f’n mother effin’ kidding me? Nice ripoff of a CSI episode from a year and change ago. Despicable, disgraceful…
So thrilled for Jacki Weaver. Made my morning after the FifaWC disaster.
The NBR hasn’t gone Picture/Director since 1997 with L.A. Confidential so they clearly loved The Social Network. I’m surprised The King’s Speech took no major awards with it’s current frontrunner status.
I haven’t seen Buried, but I think it’s important to note that a brilliantly original concept doesn’t necessarily mean a brilliant script. I really like Inception, and like I said, its script could be leagues better than Buried for all I know, but I do think that Inception’s script, however original, could have done with some fine tuning.
“although in that case they’re simply Eastwood starfuckers to the highest order, only Sasha Stone of Awards Daily can rival them”
Sasha may have enjoyed Hereafter (and Invictus for that matter), but you obviously haven’t read her breathless raves for 127 Hours or Black Swan.
Is Black Swan a dead duck?
Not bad. Good to see Eisenberg win, a performance I’ll continue to stand by as one of the best.
@Keil – I’ve seen “Buried” and the concept isn’t even that good. It’s a dude in a coffin with cell phone and he’s trying to get out, that’s it. It’s effectively filmed in that it works 90 minutes out of nothing, but it’s much more of a director’s film than a writer’s, which makes the decision more than a bit baffling.
The Town winning best ensemble over films like The Kids Are All Right is just baffling to me. That’s choosing a series of scenes with Ben Affleck and one other solid actor over a brilliant ensemble work that shows beautiful interactions and gestures, authentic, honest relationships and behaviour of five superb performers playing fully realized, complex characters.
Really strange, incredible decision.
Eisenberg is top class in “The Social Network” – best that I’ve seen this year.
I’m not surprised to see Social Network win, but the sweep is surprising given how NBR usually spreads the wealth around. Overall I was 8/11 in the top films (missing Inception, The Fighter, Shutter Island), and correctly predicted actress, supporting actor, adapted screenplay, and animated feature (though the latter was pretty obvious).
I predicted that Black Swan and 127 Hours would miss the top list so I’m not surprised by their shut-outs, but I did feel The Kids Are All Right would do much better with this group than it did.
One thing I gotta say is with the mentions of Shutter Island, Buried, Inception, Monsters and Let Me In, there didn’t seem to be any genre bias which is refreshing.
I don’t know how any prognosticator could not take “The Town” seriously as a Best Picture nominee. I mean, it’s getting nominated. Say what you will about it (personally, I think it’s a really solid meat-and-potatoes crime film with no nourishing vegetables) but it has widespread acclaim not only from critics, but from audiences, a well-loved actor on a comeback trail behind the camera, a healthy box-office performance and a a DVD/Blu-ray release in mid-December.
@Historicus,
I don’t see what her rave reviews for other films has to do with what I said? Did I say anywhere that she only loved Hereafter and Eastwood and nothing else? No, I did not. I’m merely talking about her plugging Hereafter (and earlier Eastwood films) on her site as if she was on a payroll.
AD ate my comments that I was going to repost here.
Something about…big boosts for SN & the 4 actors each of whom I didn’t think was the #1 contender yet. Could Kingdom get a spot? It got in at the Satellites too, unlike say Shutter/Hereafter which seem to be more Hey Look Scorsese/Eastwood than loving the movies.
Winter’s Bone>Kids for the Indie spot.
Another Year for the Brit spot.
Buried’s boxoffice take made Hurt Locker’s haul like Toy Story 3. $1.1m for a dude in a freakin’ coffin for 90 freakin’ minutes. Where’s the originality in that, NBR? Seriously.
Oh, and 127 missing out. It makes me feel better about Firth.
I do wish there could have been room for Blue Valentine.
And the only lead actress contenders’ movies are Lesley & Jennifer’s, which surprises me.
Always interesting to see how worked up people can get about such insignificant things like this.. Really, so what if Buried won original screenplay from the National Board of Review? Why act like your world is collapsing over something like this? Yes, we all have favourites we root for, but let’s save the anguish for the Oscar nominations, shall we? It’s not the end of the world that Inception didn’t win Original Screenplay, or that Black Swan got snubbed. It’s only the NBR for crying out loud.
Not to mention, everyone would be bitching and moaning all the more loudly if the same films, same performances, same scripts, etc. were sweeping every critics group, guild, what-have-you. Just wait a couple of weeks until The Social Network has taken home nearly all Best Film prizes from the critics and sit back and listen to people going BOOOOOORING.
Winter’s Bone keeps popping, I think Lawrence is now a sure contender for Actress and the film itself for Best Picture. Happy to see Eisenberg gaining momentum, hoping for Andrew Garfield to also do the same.
@Graysmith
You and I seem to have distinct definitions of “plugging”. Having been on that site since the OscarWatch days, if I had to call her a plugger for any one director, it certainly would be Marty first before Clint lol.
I wouldn’t mind Kids missing if it wasn’t for it not making Indie 10 or Ensemble. Was it just … forgotten? Gotta be a story there.
Kris: Good call yesterday on Hereafter being in their top 10. NBR sure loves their Eastwood movies!
That was actually Guy’s piece but I certainly agreed with him. Eastwood is perennial at this point.
In the end, NBR’s decision doesn’t affect me one bit, I just can’t believe that anybody, not to mention an entire voting body (whose job it is to watch and evaluate movies) could possibly think that “Buried” is deserving of a screenplay award. It’s just strange.
The NBR and the Oscar may not have great correlation (with winners), but as The Social Network pointed out, it is important to “get there first,” and the NBR, by virtue of being the first gatekeeper of Oscar season, inherently wields some power in setting the tone of the race. And at this point, it’s all about getting the nominations before figuring out who’s taking the golden men home.
Jesse Eisenberg + Same Exact Performance + Mediocre Film = 0 Awards
Well done NBR for voting for Lesley Manville! But Buried? I was majorly disappointed and bored throughout.
Kris, what’s the top ten? Not listed on the NBR website…
Buried and Inception both have terrible screenplays
Interesting that the NBR decided to skip on Best Breakthrough Male…I thought Eisenberg (or even Franco) would take it there and they would award an older actor with Best Actor….
Even more strange….they could actually have given the award to Eisenberg’s co-star Andrew Garfield for a tremendous year and continuing the “Social Network” love.