In Contention

Tag: National Board of Review

  • THE LONG SHOT: Critical mass

    Guy’s updated Oscar predictions here.

    Just one week on from the first formal awards announcements of the season, the Oscar season may still be taking its first steps, but my personal interest in the precursor trail is nonetheless set to peak this very weekend.

    That, of course, is when the New York Film Critics Circle and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association weigh in with their selections of the year’s best, showing up the likes of the nominee-naming Washington group as the pretenders they are, while classing up the season with some unapologetically idiosyncratic film smarts.

    Or so we hope – for as much as the major critics’ groups often delight us by throwing caution (and Oscar-soothsaying cred) to the wind with rebellious left-field picks, they are equally capable of falling dully into line behind pre-anointed favourites. I was recently chased by Tom O’Neil’s resurrected Gold Derby site for my NYFCC and LAFCA predictions, and while I’m as game as anyone for a spot of light-hearted, consequence-free punting, the irony of the exercise still nagged away at me: the day I predict either group’s set of winners accurately is the day they’ll cease to matter to me.

    (more…)

  • WEEKLY WRAP: Precursors begin, ‘Grit’ unveiled and Oscar hosts tapped

    • The biggest news of this busy week may well have been the announcement of James Franco and Anne Hathaway as this year’s Oscarcast hosts.

    • Unless you count “The Social Network” dominating the National Board of Review as bigger news, that is.

    • Or, for that matter, our first look at the Coen brothers’ “True Grit.”

    • Speaking of which, Kris reported on the current eligibility status of Carter Burwell’s score (still up in the air).

    (more…)

  • OSCAR TALK: Ep. 43 — NBR, Gothams and Spirits, ‘True Grit’ and Franco and Hathaway as Oscar hosts with special guest Peter Knegt

    Oscar TalkWelcome to Oscar Talk.

    In case you’re new to the site and/or the podcast, Oscar Talk is a weekly kudocast, your one-stop awards chat shop between yours truly and Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood. The podcast is weekly, every Friday throughout the season, charting the ups and downs of contenders along the way. Plenty of things change en route to Oscar’s stage and we’re here to address it all as it unfolds.

    Given the indie film announcements of the week, it seemed a good time to bring indieWIRE‘s Peter Knegt back on to discuss those events and add perspective to the usual topics, of which there are plenty. Let’s dive in and see what’s on the docket today…

    (more…)

  • ‘Social Network’ wins big with NBR

    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.

    (more…)

  • Predicting the National Board of Review awards

    Even more so than the Indie Spirit nods that landed yesterday, the National Board of Review honors are seen by many as the season’s official starting gun — though there are just as many who would question their right to such significance.

    The NBR gets stick on an annual basis for a range of middlebrow sins: their weakness for soft literary awards bait, their unwavering loyalty to Clint Eastwood (watch “Hereafter” aggravate everyone by showing up in tomorrow’s announcement) and their odd concessions to broad studio fare. (They’ll never live down the inclusion of “The Bucket List” — over “There Will Be Blood,” to boot — in the 2007 Top 10.)

    But as ill-advised and frequently obvious as their choices can be, the NBR can occasionally throw us a real curveball: nobody saw Campbell Scott’s Best Actor win for “Roger Dodger” coming in 2002, while the Best Picture hopes of “Quills” began and ended with its out-of-step triumph at the 2000 awards. And remember that if anyone can resist a seemingly sure thing, it’s these guys: last year, this was pretty much the only stop that sweepers Christoph Waltz and Mo’Nique missed on the awards track all season.

    (more…)

  • WEEKLY WRAP: NBR winners, Spirit nods and Jeff Bridges

    Jeff Bridges• The National Board of Review offered the season’s first major precursors, with “Up in the Air” sitting pretty.

    • The Independent Spirit Award nominations were topped by “Precious” and, more surprisingly, “The Last Station.”

    • Indie award rivals the Gotham Awards, meanwhile, crowned “The Hurt Locker” as the year’s best.

    • Fresh off his Spirit nomination, we served up an extended interview with the great Jeff Bridges.

    (more…)

  • Variety reflects on foreign Oscar history

    Giuletta Masina in La StradaThe mark of a true Oscar geek is the self-assignment of nuttily completist viewing exercises. Only a select few understand the drive to track down every Oscar-affiliated titles in existence — however obscure, expensive or awful — all so one can say with absolute authority who should have won, say, Best Actor in 1952. (Alec Guinness, since you ask.)

    As small an achievement as it appears to the uninitiated, I remember the sense of triumph I felt upon excavating a VHS copy of “Cavalcade,” then the last remaining Best Picture winner I hadn’t seen. (Triumph soon turned to agony as I actually watched the film, but I prefer to forget that.)

    So I doff my hat to Variety critic Peter Debruge. Inspired by a montage in the 2007 Academy Awards broadcast — see, the montages aren’t completely useless after all — Debruge set himself the task of watching every Best Foreign Language Film winner in Oscar history, encompassing 61 titles ranging from the canonized to the buried.

    (more…)

  • ‘Up in the Air’ wins big at NBR

    Anna Kendrick in Up in the AirThe real question with today’s National Board of Review announcement wasn’t who won, but who didn’t win.

    A couple of ties and a list of honorees that seemed to canvas the entire crop of filmmaking product from 2009 adds something of a diluted quality to the proceedings, I must say.  Of course, it is worth noting that major titles like “The Lovely Bones” and “Nine” were not only absent from the list of the group’s top 10 films of the year, but they weren’t visible anywhere, in any category.

    The big winner was Jason Reitman’s “Up in the Air,” which took down Best Film, Best Actor (George Clooney in a tie with “Invictus” star Morgan Freeman), Best Supporting Actress (Anna Kendrick) and Best Adapted Screenplay.

    “Invictus” also did well, nabbing a Best Director citation for Clint Eastwood (someone the NBR has shown, time and again, that they can’t resist) in addition to Freeman’s shared award and a mention in the Freedom of Expression category.

    (More, including a full list of winners, after the jump.)

    (more…)

  • 12/3 Oscarweb Round-up

    Natalie Portman• Donna Freydkin talks “Brothers” and  transitioning to an adult role with Natalie Portman. [USA Today]

    • Laura M. Holson talks to Tom Ford and others about the former Gucci creative director’s feature film debut, “A Single Man.” [New York Times]

    • Roger Ebert four-stars “Up in the Air.” [Chicago Sun-Times]

    (more…)

  • Obligatory “guess the NBR” post

    I don’t really have the energy to predict this thing another year.  I mean, we can all take a million different stabs at the top 10, take a gander at the actors who have multiple roles, which the NBR likes to recognize (I mean seriously, who ISN’T going to pick Stanley Tucci for supporting actor), make the requisite calls in favor of the obvious “breakthrough” possibilities, etc., etc.  If I had to pick a Best Picture winner, I guess I’d lean toward “Precious” or “The Hurt Locker,” but seriously…whatever.

    Some of you would probably like some space to predict, however, so consider this your opportunity.  Thoughts on tomorrow’s announcement?

  • 1/15 Oscarweb Round-up

    Will Smith• Kim Voynar responds to the foreign shortlist. [Movie City News]

    • Pete Hammond wonders if “The Dark Knight” in dicey waters with the “Reader” surge coming on strong. [Notes on a Season]

    • Tom O’Neil thinks keeping the Oscar presenters a secret until the big night is a mistake.  Eh, I dig it. [Gold Derby]

    • Paula Schwartz catches up with Clint Eastwood at the National Board of Review awards. [The Carpetbagger]

    • Nirpal Dahliwal on why “Slumdog Millionaire” could have only been made by a westerner. [The Guardian]

    • The Press Association gets some Obama inauguration comments from Will Smith at the “Seven Pounds” red carpet across the pond. [The Independent]

    • The only nomination “The Dark Knight” will share with “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” all year long: the Publicist Awards. [Variety]

  • WEEKLY WRAP: ‘Slumdog’ surges, ‘River’ emerges

    Sorry it’s a day late, but here’s the week that was. Awards and nominations left, right and centre — the season is officially under way, folks:

    • “Slumdog Millionaire” emerged as a bona fide frontrunner, taking Best Picture at the season kickoff, the National Board of Review awards …

    • … only days after taking top honours across the Atlantic, at the British Independent Film Awards.

    • Speaking of indies, “Frozen River” also enjoyed a great week, emerging victorious at the Gotham Awards …

    • … while it was also one of the top nominees for the Independent Spirit Awards.

    • We took a break from the awards beat to chat to the impressive ladies of “I’ve Loved You So Long,” Kristin Scott Thomas and Elsa Zylberstein …

    • The former of whom took a gong at the European Film Awards, which were otherwise all about “Gomorrah.”

    • The Annie Awards for animation revealed their nominees, with “Kung Fu Panda” surprisingly leading the field.

    • Meanwhile, the mysterious Golden Satellite nominations were as head-scratching as ever.

    • The first reviews finally emerged on “The Reader,” and they generally like it … from a distance.

    • While the appearance of reviews doesn’t make “Gran Torino” any less of a puzzle this awards season.

    • And all the while, the rumblings around “The Dark Knight” grow louder.

  • ‘Slumdog,’ ‘Torino’ win big at NBR

    Clint Eastwood in Gran TorinoThe 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.)

    (more…)

  • A shot in the dark

    Okay, so Kris has sensibly avoided predicting the frequently confounding National Board of Review awards, but I figure you need someone to mock and taunt when the announcement arrives later today, so I’m offering myself as a sacrificial lamb. My best guesses (which is not to say good guesses) after the cut.

    I’m bearing in mind that last year, they chose not to include their Best Picture winner in their Top 10, thereby making it more of a Top 11. As for how they choose to categorise and separate independent film, I have no idea.

    I must admit that, for all their occasional goofiness, I harbour some affection for the NBR awards, if only because they sometimes throw some curveballs into the mix (“Quills” or Campbell Scott, anyone?) and were among the few to suitably reward “Moulin Rouge!” in 2001. Here’s hoping they’re similarly adventurous this around.

    (more…)

  • You won’t find NBR predictions in this space

    National Board of ReviewNot from me, anyway.  Other blogs might want to go there, but I can’t do it.

    Yes, the National Board of Review is set to unveil its top 10 list and rundown of awards winners on Thursday, but I can’t muster the courage to offer a set of predictions.  Let alone the fact that the group has marginalized itself to the point that being the first precursor is nothing more than a trivial aside.  (Though I guess they’re really not first, but who cares about the Golden Satellites?).

    Regardless of all of that, how do you wrestle with forecasting an organization that chalks up “The Bucket List” as one of the year’s best?  Plus, I don’t know who’s spending the most money on the NBR banquet this year, so it’s hard to know what studios will fare better.  What, you gonna tell me money doesn’t count with this crowd?

    The year’s annual joke will hit in three days, then we can move on to the real precursor circuit, but in the meantime, Dave Karger has taken a stab (perhaps foolhardy in his exclusion of “The Dark Knight” — WB knows how to woo the NBR), while Sasha Stone has provided a space for your own predictions and a rundown of NBR stats and how they compare with Oscar through the years.  Ugh.  I just can’t bring myself to care.

    But if you can, have at it and predict the NBR’s annual awards below.