NBR goes crazy for Scorsese with a little love left over for Clint & Quentin
Tuesday, December 3, 2019 at 2:52PM
NATHANIEL R in NBR, Oscars (19)

by Nathaniel R

 

The National Board of Review  is often derided online for being such a confusing and secretive organization (they cant correctly be defined as a critics group though the media / online pundits love to inaccurately list them that way). Nevertheless they've been a significant Oscar bellwether nonetheless. That's partially from positioning since for many years they were the first awards body to announce. This year, they still acknowledged their favourite person on earth (Clint Eastwood) with three citations for Richard Jewell but they’ve transferred most of their 'we stan legends' obsessive devotion to Martin Scorsese who wins Best Film AND is being honored in Best Documentary AND with a special “Icon” prize. If that weren’t enough two films he executive produced (Uncut Gems and The Souvenir) are also cited with awards or lists.

Though the multiple lists each year assure that a huge bulk of Oscar contenders are accounted for there are notable omissions each year. Some high profile films they completely ignored were: Joker, The Two Popes, Little Women, Hustlers, Rocketman, Clemency, and Bombshell.

Here are the films and actor they'll be honoring on January 8th in NYC. We've also added some stats to give these awards a bit of prognosticating contex...

THE HEADLINE CATEGORIES

Stats referenced below are, unless otherwise noted, are from the last 20 years

FILM The Irishman

This is only the second time a Scorsese picture has won their top prize. The first time was for Hugo (2011). That said he took their best director prize thrice for Age of Innocence (1993), The Departed (2006) and Hugo (2011) .

Stats: The NBR choice for Best Film goes on to a Best Picture nomination about 85% of the time. It wins the Oscar much less frquently. The only examples in the past twenty years were No Country For Old Men (2007), Slumdog Millionaire (2008), and Green Book (2018).

 

DIRECTOR Quentin Tarantino, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

This is the second NBR win for Tarantino who also won it for Pulp Fiction

Stats: The ratio of winning this to receiving an Oscar nomination is about 40%. Last year was kind of a perfect example in that they went with the very buzzy Bradley Cooper for A Star is Born... but Oscar's directing branch passed. 

ACTRESS Renee Zellweger, Judy

Stats: About 80% of winners here go on to Oscar nominations. This is one of their least adventurous categories as they usually pick someone who is perceived to be in the thick of the Oscar mix.

ACTOR Adam Sandler, Uncut Gems

Stats: 85% of winners here go on to Oscar nominations. When they do stray from Oscar buzz they often choose someone far outside of it. 

 

SUPPORTING ACTRESS Kathy Bates, Richard Jewell

This is the second win for Kathy Bates at the NBR. She also took this prize for About Schmidt (2002)

Stats: About 50% of their winners go on to Oscar nominations, though its quite rare that they actually repeat the win at the Oscars. Last year's win for If Beale Street's Regina King was the exception rather than the rule.

SUPPORTING ACTOR  Brad Pitt, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Stats: 80% of their winners go on to Oscar nominations, with 20% also winning the Oscar. 

BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE Paul Walter Hauser, Richard Jewell

BEST ENSEMBLE Knives Out

Stats: The Oscars don't have an ensemble prize but the NBR often disagrees with the most famous such prize, the SAG "Outstanding Cast". Only about 50% of their winners go on to a nomination at SAG. There have been just four shared winners in history: Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (2003), No Country for Old Men (2007), The Help (2011), and Hidden Figures (2016).

MORE PRIZES

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY The Irishman

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY Uncut Gems

BEST ANIMATED FILM How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

BEST FOREIGN FILM Parasite

BEST DOCUMENTARY Maiden

BEST DIRECTORIAL DEBUT Melina Matsoukas, Queen & Slim

SPECIAL PRIZES

NBR FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION For Sama and Just Mercy

NBR ICON AWARD Martin Scorsese, Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino

They didn’t give out there annual William K Everson Film History Award this year. 

 

THEIR "LISTS"

One should note here that the winners for best film, best documentary, and best foreign film are never actually included in the "top" ___ lists... as if they're floating above the entire list.

TOP 10 FILMS

TOP 10 INDEPENDENT FILMS

 

TOP FIVE DOCUMENTARIES

 

American Factory, Apollo 11, and For Sama (which shared the freedom of expression prize) are all looking strong going into Oscar voting for Best Documentary.

 

TOP FIVE FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILMS

What a category. We love all five of those pictures, the latter two of which are sadly not eligible for the Oscar for Best International Film

 

What do you think of NBR's choices this year? 

 

Article originally appeared on The Film Experience (http://thefilmexperience.net/).
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