Jason Reitman kicks all sorts of ass as this year’s National Board of Review of Motion Pictures handed out its honors for top films of the year. Up in the Air (our review) winds up with four wins. Up in the Air opens wide this weekend, so I can’t wait to check it out tomorrow night.
Full list of winners and their top ten lists are listed below.
Best Film: Up In The Air
Best Director: Clint Eastwood, Invictus
Best Actor: Morgan Freeman, Invictus and George Clooney, Up In The Air (tie
Best Actress: Carey Mulligan, An Education
Best Supporting Actor: Woody Harrelson, The Messenger
Best Supporting Actress: Anna Kendrick, Up In The Air
Best Foreign Film: A Prophet
Best Documentary: The Cove
Best Animated Feature: Up
Best Ensemble Cast: It’s Complicated
Breakthrough Performance by an Actor: Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker
Breakthrough Performance by an Actress: Gabourey Sidibe, Precious
Spotlight Award for Best Directorial Debut: Duncan Jones, Moon, Oren Moverman, The Messenger and Marc Webb, 500 Days of Summer (tie)
Best Original Screenplay: Joel & Ethan Coen, A Serious Man
Best Adapted Screenplay: Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner, Up In The Air
Special Filmmaking Achievement Award: Wes Anderson, The Fantastic Mr. Fox
William K. Everson Film History Award: Jean Picker Firstenberg
top ten lists are below the seats…
NBR Freedom of Expression: Burma Vj: Reporting From A Closed Country, Invictus, The Most Dangerous Man In America: Daniel Ellseberg and The Pentagon Papers
Top Eleven Films (In alphabetical order):
An Education
(500) Days Of Summer
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Invictus
The Messenger
A Serious Man
Star Trek
Up
Up In The Air
Where The Wild Things Are
Top Ten Independent Films (In alphabetical order):
Amreeka
District 9
Goodbye Solo
Humpday
In The Loop
Julia
Me And Orson Welles
Moon
Sugar
Two Lovers
Top Six Foreign Films (In alphabetical order):
The Maid
A Prophet
Revanche
Song Of Sparrows
Three Monkeys
The White Ribbon
Top Six Documentary Films (In alphabetical order):
Burma Vj: Reporting From A Closed Country
The Cove
Crude
Food, Inc.
Good Hair
The Most Dangerous Man In America: Daniel Ellsberg And The Pentagon Papers
Didn’t Kurt call it back when he saw it? Up in the Air wins Best Picture at the Oscars?
Yes indeed, Jonathan, I’d be surprised if Up In The Air didn’t win next Feb. If it does, it is going to win for its emotion, a smidge of risk and also incredibly timely. It’s also a great looking and smart film that should connect with the mainstream. Probably one of the rare few adult movies that will do this (sad but true). On the politics side, it’s got surefire Clooney (hollywood royalty at the prow) and Reitman has pedigree in his family, and he has even been nominated in the past. The only thing it needs under its belt at this point is some serious commercial success which is very likely to happen.
Not my favourite film of the the year (That’d be ENTER THE VOID), but it’s probably going to end up in the top 5, so yea, I’d be happy to see golden-man go to a young canadian director who has pretty much artistically surpassed his dad (even if I have a massive soft spot for GHOSTBUSTERS and STRIPES).
…and don’t doubt the power of Helvetica. It’s all over this movie!