Mirroring the NYFCC's decision, the National Board of Review named Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty the best of the year, including honours for Bigelow herself and star Jessica Chastain. The film, which we mortals won't get to see almost until Oscar nominations are upon us, is shaping up to be the critics' favourite throughout the month of December, much to the chagrin of Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master I'm sure, which was perceived to have filled that slot up until just last week when Bigelow's film finally screened for press. Anderson's beguiling opus was shut out here as it was by the New York critics, failing to even make the top ten films list. It had better hope the L.A. critics stump for it in a big way, or it could vanish from the conversation entirely.
Another big winner is David O. Russell's Silver Linings Playbook, for which Russell won Best Adapted Screenplay and star Bradley Cooper won Best Actor against a wealth of Oscar-luring competition. This is a big boost for him. Costar Jennifer Lawrence is already a likely nominee for Best Actress, but Cooper is on the bubble in a crowded field. His win here is good springboard for his campaign.
A couple of peculiar wins come in the form of Compliance's Ann Dowd taking Best Supporting Actress and Looper taking Best Original Screenplay. For Dowd, this is a chance for her little-seen film to gain some exposure and maybe give her a leg up in a somewhat thin Best Supporting Actress race. Remember Jackie Weaver started her march to an Oscar nod for Animal Kingdom with the NBR two years ago. As for Looper, Rian Johnson's inventive script is one of the film's most celebrated elements, and with the Original Screenplay race less stuffed with Best Picture fodder than the Adapted category, maybe he can surface there as a nominee. This win is certainly an encouraging sign.
Best Film: "Zero Dark
Thirty"
Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow,
"Zero Dark Thirty"
Best Actor: Bradley Cooper,
"Silver Linings Playbook"
Best Actress: Jessica Chastain,
"Zero Dark Thirty"
Best Supporting Actor: Leonardo
DiCaprio, "Django Unchained"
Best Supporting Actress: Ann
Dowd, "Compliance"
Best Adapted Screenplay: "Silver
Linings Playbook"
Best Original Screenplay:
"Looper"
Best Animated Feature: "Wreck-It
Ralph"
Breakthrough Actor: Tom Holland,
"The Impossible"
Breakthrough Actress: Quvenzhané
Wallis, "Beasts of the Southern Wild"
Best Directorial Debut: Benh
Zeitlin, "Beasts of the Southern Wild"
Best Foreign Language Film:
"Amour"
Best Documentary: "Searching
for Sugar Man"
Best Ensemble: "Les
Miserables"
Spotlight Award: John Goodman
("Argo", "Flight", "ParaNorman",
"Trouble with the Curve")
NBR Freedom of Expression: "The
Central Park Five"
NBR Freedom of Expression:
"Promised Land"
William K. Everson Film History
Award: 50 Years of Bond Films
Top Films (in alphabetical
order)
"Argo"
"Beasts of the Southern Wild"
"Django Unchained"
"Les Miserables"
“Lincoln"
"The Perks of Being a
Wallflower"
"Promised Land"
"Silver Linings Playbook"
Top 5 Foreign Language Films (in
alphabetical order)
"Barbara"
"The Intouchables"
"The Kid with a Bike"
“No"
"War Witch"
Top 5 Documentaries (in
alphabetical order)
"Ai Weiwie: Never Sorry"
"Detropia"
"The Gatekeepers”
"The Invisible War"
"Only the Young"
Top 10 Independent Films (in
alphabetical order)
"Arbitrage"
"Bernie"
"Compliance"
"End of Watch"
"Hello I Must Be Going"
"Little Birds"
"Moonrise Kingdom"
"On the Road"
"Quartet"
"Sleepwalk with Me"
