NBR Awards. Old Favorites Clint, Clooney & Marty Triumphant Again
Thursday, December 1, 2011 at 3:41PM 
Though the NBR finally gave up their "first!" crown -- and without so much as a fight! -- they were true to form in other ways. George Clooney & Clint Eastwood can't even sneeze without 92% of the NBR crowd shouting gezundheit so naturally their films won top ten placements and Clooney's film (The Descendants) won three other prizes, too.
But Martin Scorsese, another previous NBR winner, was the man of the hour. Or the future hour when the banquet takes place since he showed up on the Documentary top five list with George Harrison: Living in the Material World (review) and his film Hugo won both Best Picture and Best Director. A double win for those categories is not common at the NBR. It's true that it happened last year with The Social Network but before that it hadn't happened since 1997 when Curtis Hanson did the trick with LA Confidential.
PICTURE Hugo
(top 10 ...the rest are in alpha order)
• The Artist
• The Descendants
• Drive
• The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt 2
• The Ides of March
• J. Edgar
(Clint Eastwood hasn't missed their top ten list since Blood Work, 2002)
• The Tree of Life
• War Horse
FOREIGN FILM A Separation
(top 5 additional foreign films in alpha order)
•13 Assassins
• Elite Squad: The Enemy Within
• Footnote
• Le Havre
• Point Blank
DIRECTOR Martin Scorsese, Hugo
ACTRESS Tilda Swinton, We Need To Talk About Kevin
ACTOR George Clooney, The Descendants
SUPPORTING ACTRESS Shailene Woodley, The Descendants
SUPPORTING ACTOR Christopher Plummer, Beginners
BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE Felicity Jones, Like Crazy and Rooney Mara, The Girl With the Dragon Tatoo
DEBUT DIRECTOR JC Chandor, Margin Call
ENSEMBLE The Help
How Elizabeth Olsen in Martha Marcy May Marlene keeps losing these "breakthrough" and "debut" categories is beyond me. And NBR also shunned it even in the top ten indies list.
many more prizes, top ten indies, and awards history after the jump.
TOP TEN INDIE FILMS
(alpha order)
• 50/50
• Another Earth
• Beginners
• A Better Life
• Cedar Rapids
• Margin Call
• Shame
• Take Shelter
• We Need To Talk About Kevin
• Win Win
DOCUMENTARY Paradise Lost 3, Purgatory
(top 5 additional documentarys in alpha order)
• Born to be Wild
• Buck
• George Harrison: Living in the Material World
• Project Nim
• Senna
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY Will Reiser, 50/50
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY The Descendants
SPOTLIGHT AWARD Michael Fassbender (X-Men: First Class, Shame, Jane Eyre, A Dangerous Method)
NBR FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION Crime After Crime and Pariah
SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT IN FILMMAKING: The Harry Potter franchise
They weren't content to give ol' Potter a place in the top ten. They get a special award, too.
Year: Picture, Director, Actress, Actor, Supp. Actress, Supp. Actor
Key: Black =Oscar Nominated. Underlined =Oscar Winner. Blue =Oscar Snub
2010: Social Network, Fincher, Manville, Eisenberg, Bale, Weaver
2009: Up in the Air, Eastwood, Mulligan, Clooney + Freeman, Kendrick, Harrelson
2008: Slumdog Millionaire, Fincher, Hathaway, Eastwood, Cruz, Brolin
2007: No Country For Old Men, Burton, Christie, Clooney, Ryan, Affleck
2006: Letters From Iwo Jima, Scorsese, Mirren, Whitaker, O'Hara, Hounsou
2005: Good Night, and Good Luck, Lee, Huffman, Hoffman, Li, Gyllenhaal
2004: Finding Neverland, Mann, Bening, Foxx, Linney, Church
2003: Mystic River, Zwick, Keaton, Penn, Clarkson, Baldwin
2002: The Hours, Noyce, Moore, Scott, Bates, Cooper
2001: Moulin Rouge!, Field, Berry, Thornton, Blanchett, Broadbent
Clint Eastwood, George Clooney, Harry Potter, Hugo, Martin Scorsese, NBR, Oscars (11)
Reader Comments (46)
Completely different than NYFCC.
Didn't The Social Network win both Picture and Director last year? :)
What J. Said.
Also... whoa Harry Potter.
I'm happy for 50/50...it's gotten a good boost this week and Tilda, of course. But the rest...eh. I also don't get the non-love MMMM.
The Catherine O'Hara snub :(
TILDA!
But it is strange that Elizabeth Olsen keep getting "snubbed" cause she is suppose to be excellent in MMMM
TILDA! It has to happen!
Very happy for Tilda Swinton!
Interesting to see that there's been one - and only one - Oscar snub in those major categories. We can probably assume that'll be Tilda this year.
David -- or Shailene... though Tilda is more likely you're right. Supporting Actress has like 7 strong contenders i think but only two spots. or maybe they'll have a year like 2001 where the nods looked Oscar but didn't happen?
Is Midnight in Paris might losing traction in favor of Beginners?
What the hell is the spotlight award? Awarded for being in the spotlight? Aren't actors in the spotlight for their work? So, why don't you recognize "the body of work" instead of the spotlight that comes from it? And anyway, isn't awarding someone putting him in the spotlight? And in the end, if it's been awarded to Fassy are they sure is spotlight what they mean? ;P
Any list that cites Drive, Potter, Hugo, and Tree of Life (4 of my current top 5) is good in my books.
And there is no surer bet in awards season than on Eastwood movies for NBR recognition.
Also totally missing out here, NYFCC, and only noms for Corey Stoll and Cinematography at the Spirits might should make you reconsider Midnight in Paris a lock for Best Picture?
Happy for Tilda! And Shailene is the best thing about The Descendants, so, good for her. But any group that doesn't list Bill Cunningham New York in its best documentaries, but lauds a Harry Potter movie is suspect. Not to mention the icky Clint Eastwood/George Clooney lovefest. Whatevs.
Dean -- well. i thought about that but then Midnight in Paris doesn't really seem like a NYFCC kinnd of thing and i was shocked that itwas even eligible for Indie Spirits -- technically i don't think it should have been. I thought it was well above their budget cap. But we'll see. I always figured it was for the more mainstream votes... just like The Help.
I know two voting members who are also frequent readers here. One of them just texted me this in regard to both the snub of MMMM and the triumph of The Descendants: "Groooss! Have they seen it? up close?"
HUGO huh. Again, would have preferred TREE OF LIFE or THE ARTIST but thank god it wasn’t THE DESCENDANTS.
And yes, Tilda was the big hallelujah moment for me too. A big endorsement like this early on in the season is really gonna get her on HFPA, SAG and Oscar voter’s radars. Plus it’s the kind of performance that’ll get #1 placements.
Based on the odds, I'd actually say this might be the final nail in the coffin for Scorsese's best director campaign. Of the 13 snubs in the last ten awards ceremonies, 6 were for their Best Director winner, 3 were for their Best Actor winner, 2 for their supporting actress winner and only one for their lead actress winner. Draw conclusions on those odds.
Volvagia -- interesting. i hadn't thought of that but it's true that director is where they tend to be least predictive of Oscar and, maybe to their credit, they don't even seem to try to be predictive in that category ;)
Re: best actress race
Streep, Davis and Williams are locked and loaded.
Glenn Close is actively campaigning for that 6th Oscar nod and surely ‘knows’ more people in the actor’s branch than any of her competitors, save Streep. Regardless of a Globe and/or SAG snub I think she’s safe.
I really believe it’ll come down to Mara and Swinton for that last spot---with Olsen and Knightly as dark horse possibilities.
joy -- NBR voters who read this site? please ask them to write me privately and explain the Clint Eastwood thing. I mean i can only take so much "hereafter?" and "j edgar" as top ten'ers?
I'll always appreciate the NBR for kick-starting the Moulin Rouge! campaign in 2001.
And I'm really shocked to see Harry Potter in their top ten. None of the Lord of the Rings films made their list in 2001-2003...
So I think Hugo is in for Best Picture. A high-profile movie from a legendary director that wins the NBR and places at the NYFCC Awards just seems too big to fail. I'm not saying it will win, but for those of us who were doubting its chances, I think it's now an absolute lock, along with The Artist. Time will tell if it will be a legitimate threat for the win, but for now, we have AT LEAST two locks in the category, and probably four (the other two being War Horse and The Descendants). I'm also starting to think The Tree of Life may make it all the way after all.
Also, does anyone know if Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close was eligible for this? Because if not, that may be a sign that it won't be as big a player as we thought.
Oh, and just call this a pessimistic hunch, but I just having this dreading feeling that somehow the foreign film commission will screw up again and we'll see A Separation not even nominated. Again, that's just me being really pessimistic, but it seems like every time a foreign film starts to gain widespread support, the Academy finds a way to pick something different.
TILDA!!! OMG! She's soo good in WNTTAK, Gena Rowlands in a Cassavetes film good! Oh My god, please Academy, reward acting and NOT mimicry.
I counted nine films in the Top 10 List. Is Hugo the 10th one?
I love when people mention Gena Rowlands as a standard of awesome acting!
John-Paul! I was thinking exactly the same. Everyone: Go see A Separation!
Considering their tendency to reward foreign performers, would'nt it be lovely if LAFCA gave their best supporting actress award to Sareh Bayat (the maid).
PS Nathaniel, I sense Elizabeth Olsen is your favourite female performance this year... or is it too soon to ask you that?
Praise god for Tilda Swinton! This is EXACTLY what she needed. She gives my favorite performance so far this year (although I haven't seen Theron or Streep yet). Totally award-worthy and I hope this puts her on the radar for voters in SAG and the Academy.
For everyone else, I echo the bizarre and baffling snubs of Elizabeth Olsen and Martha Marcy May Marlene in general. TERRIFIC performance in a TERRIFIC film that no one seems to want to award. And it didn't even make top 10 independent films, but Cedar Rapids did? WHAT THE F&%&!!!???
Also SHOCKED that Felicity Jones keeps winning these breakthrough actress awards...if they weren't going to honor Elizabeth, I'm very VERY surprised they didn't give the breakthrough to Jessica Chastain...I mean...SERIOUSLY! She's more ubiquitous than Gosling and Fassbender this year...and they gave Fassbender a "Spotlight" (WTF?) award but not her? But absolutely no disrespect to him, because he is very deserving.
Why is it that some years they do a Top Ten + the Best Film and some a Top Ten including the Best Film? This is such a weird group.
As for the potential of a Scorsese snub, I guess it's possible given the Academy's history with Scorsese versus their history with Woody Allen, but I still feel that predicting Woody over Scorsese is a risky proposition. On paper, it should be no contest unless Midnight in Paris picks up steam.
Peggy Sue -- she's not my favorite of the year, no. But i think if you're talking "breakthrough" newbies, she's far and away the best so it's weird that she's not winning these prizes.
All in all, a pretty solid top ten list. Say what you will about J. Edgar, but it was enjoyable and could be looked back on as a camp classic.
With this latest Martha Marcy May Marlene snub, I wonder if the film's subject matter is not connecting with or is just off-putting to critics groups? It's certainly heavy and obviously clicked with peer juries (Sundance, Gotham), but may not be "weighty" enough (à la Precious) for most award bodies. I don't know how else to explain the growing list of glaring omissions.
Mareko -- well, the NBR is not a critics group and NYFCC is only one critics group so we'll see. it's very early still.
I fear The Help is going to win every single ensemble award this year... which is tragic.
They're all great actresses but I feel everyone single one is performing in a different tone.
Reading the year's winners and the history, you see a really odd mix of interesting choices Eastwood idolatry, right? Odd. Maybe if they wait ten years without any new members and let the Clint fans die out, they'll have really interesting choices.
Well, Dragon Tattoo did pull a tie here. Have you seen that film yet?
Nathaniel: do you think that Viola Davis' Oscar chances will go down if no critic-awards body recognizes her?
Volvagia -- it starts screening tomrorrow here in NYC but i won't be able to talk about it for another week or two due to the rules)
BVR -- not really. i mean, did anyone ever think that critics groups would give Viola prizes? Mostly I find critics groups disappointing (not just this year) as I find film criticism in general disappointing. Because a lot of people who practice it don't seem to really have strong points of view or they're as lazy as more "mainstream" awards voters in differentiating their feelings about a movie as a whole with its parts. I'm not trying to be a superior bitch about it ; ) but frankly I don't know how critics who are paying attention can watch The Help and. even if they hate it, not just marvel at what Viola Davis is doing with the role. This is an actor who is FAR exceeding the scope of the film that houses her but that said, it's not a critics movies and most critics jsut aren't strong enough to go against the grain in that kind of a way. They're more like Oscar voters than people think "ooh, i like this impersonation of a famous person: well done, Leo, Michelle, Meryl, etcetera"
Wow, is this a buzzkill for MMMM and Lizzie. I don't think she'll even be nom'ed by the HFPA.
Close, Davis, Streep, Williams are in.
Swinton, Theron are still in it.
The pretty little things (Mara, Dunst, Olsen and Jones) are dark horses.
Oh, and we still have Barkin creeping up.
BTW, how jealous must those girls be of that Woodley chick? I mean, isn't she on ABC Family?
Lalaland -- well, it's certainly not GOOD news for Lizzy. haha. BUT we've only had NYFCC and NBR and Globes, SAG and LAFCA and many more are still to come. we shall see.
Nat...
Why can Davis win BA award in a mediocre film and Streep is not allowed to? And don't just give me the "mimic" argument, because I really don't buy in to it.
By the way, I think Davis is a terrific actress!
my objection to mimicry winning awards is not that it does. It's that it does ALL THE TIME. it seems from time to time like it's the only thing anybody respects and it is just one tool in the actor's arsenal.
i have no opinion on streep's performance yet. i kept having issues with the screenings i was supposed to attend from overbooking to other problems. but i'm seeing it this weekend finally.
@Lalaland
I'd say Streep, Williams, and Davis are pretty much locks, but I am not so sure about Close. Yes, she's respected and has many friends in the industry, but the problem she faces is that not only has her film received mostly negative reviews, but her performance has received sort of "meh" notices as well. This is very different from Davis and Williams, where both have received rave reviews in mixed-reviewed films.
I'm thinking that both Theron AND Swinton could knock off Close in the final five and have a Davis, Streep, Willams, Theron, and Swinton lineup. Nevertheless, I may be way off base here. It is still quite early.
Aaron... Sounds good to me.
I ♥ Tilda Swinton!