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