Slumdog Millionaire took Best Picture honors from the National Board of Review, with Clint Eastwood and Anne Hathaway winning the Best Actor and Best Actress prizes. Their other top-10 films were Burn After Reading, Changeling, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Dark Knight, Defiance, Frost/Nixon, Gran Torino, Milk, Wall-E, and The Wrestler. Missing from their list: Doubt (which did receive an ensemble prize), Revolutionary Road, and The Reader. The big winner, besides Slumdog with three prizes, is obviously Eastwood, who directed two of the NBR top 10 (or should I say top 11?). Here’s a rundown of their award winners:
Best Film: Slumdog Millionaire
Best Director: David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Best Actor: Clint Eastwood, Gran Torino
Best Actress: Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married
Best Supporting Actor: Josh Brolin, Milk
Best Supporting Actress: Penélope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Best Foreign Language Film: Mongol
Best Documentary: Man on Wire
Best Animated Feature: Wall-E
Best Ensemble Cast: Doubt
Breakthrough Performance by an Actor: Dev Patel, Slumdog Millionaire
Breakthrough Performance by an Actress: Viola Davis, Doubt
Best Directorial Debut: Courtney Hunt, Frozen River
Best Original Screenplay: Nick Schenk, Gran Torino
Best Adapted Screenplay: Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog Millionaire and Eric Roth, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Spotlight Award: Melissa Leo, Frozen River and Richard Jenkins, The Visitor
The BVLGARI Award for NBR Freedom of Expression: Trumbo
Top Ten Films:
Burn After Reading
Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Defiance
Frost/Nixon
Gran Torino
Milk
Wall-E
The Wrestler
Top Five Foreign Language Films:
Edge of Heaven
Let the Right One In
Roman de Gare
A Secret
Waltz with Bashir
Top Five Documentary Films:
American Teen
The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)
Dear Zachary
Encounters at the End of the World
Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired
Kudos to “Jasmine” and “Nick” for predicting eight out the NBR’s 11 films. Most of you did better than my measly five right. And here’s my OscarWatch interview with Best Actress winner Anne Hathaway:
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WOOOOOOOOO! Huzzah for Slumdog Millionaire!
Burn After Reading in the Top 10? Really? I didn’t think that it was that great, though I am pleased to see TDK and WALL-E in there as well.
Great choice in “Slumdog” and kudos to “Edge of Heaven” and “Man on Wire”!
was not the biggest fan of “Benjamin Button” and thought Brad Pitt was not the right person to play the title character.
Very happy to see TDK and Wall-E on the list.
“Slumdog” is overwrought and gimmicky, not a best picture. The NBR often goes for sentimental pap like this and “Finding Neverland” a few years back (remember, they put “The Bucket List” in their top 10 last year). I wouldn’t put too much worth in their choices.
I was surprised to see Burn After Reading on the Top 10 list. I was even more surprised to see that Clint edged out Penn in the Best Actor.
Man, the NBR has a SERIOUS serious crush on Eastwood. How else to explain his critically panned performance and films getting awarded. And no Heath Ledger for supporting??? No Kate Winslet anywhere? Did the NBR even see Revolutionary Road and The Reader? And seriously, Burn After Reading??? That movie was terrible!
That being said, I am glad that Slumdog, The Dark Knight, and Wall-E got honors at least. Hopefully, that will help their chances.
Burn After Reading was awful. How in the world was it included!
Burn After Reading was awful. How in the world was it included!
Brolin for Milk? Why not Ledger for The Dark Knight? Brolin should have won his awards for No country for Old Men.
Uhhh…If the NBR wants their awards to be taken seriously you would think the movie given the “Best Documentary” award would actually be listed as one of the Top 5 Documentary Films…
Im going to say the NBR is a joke.
Pitt was miscast in Button. It really needed someone better for such a sublime story.
I think “Slumdog Millionaire” is a fun different kind of movie but I don’t think it should even be nominated for an Academy Award as best movie.
Not enough of these “voters” saw REVOLUTIONARY ROAD. A powerful film that easily makes the year’s 10 best. CHANGELING?! Are you kidding me? Stop blowing Clint Eastwood already, NBR.
Yayy for TDK, Wall-e and Slumdog…
boo for Heath Not winning Supp. Actor
I think some awards shows are going to bypass Ledger (for the win) simply because then they’ll have to go through the depressing moment of having someone else (his parents? Nolan?) accept the award on his behalf.
And, yes, the NBR definitely has a strange affection for Eastwood. I mean, didn’t the rather mediocre (Letters From Iwo Jim was obviously good) Flags Of Our Fathers make the cut last year as well?
Typo…that would be Letters From Iwo Jima.
What a joke. Eastwood has been doing the same old tired mumbling and grumbling for 40 years. How could any group of movie acting critics honor him as “Best Actor?” Penn, Rourke, Langella, Jenkins and countless other real actors were superior.
The other pics are not so hard to believe…unfortunately Kristin Scott-Thomas deserves accolades and so does Heath.
To Ruben: If you look closely none of the best film winners (documentary, feature and foreign) is included in their best lists, because the NBR first chooses a winner and then picks additional films for the best of the year list.
Happy about Wall-E, not so sure about Burn after Reading and Changeling.
I can’t really put much faith in the NBR. First off, I thought Burn After Reading was an awful movie. (and I’m a big fan of the Coen Brothers.) It has also received decidedly mixed reviews and Defiant is also receiving such mixed reviews. Slumdog Million was a good, but not great movie. I haven’t seen Gran Torino so I can’t comment, but the NBR certainly loves their Clint Eastwood. I’m also surprised about the inclusion of Penelope Cruz for Vicky Christina Barcelona. I’m most pleasantly surprised about David Fincher for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. It was a great film and amazingly directed by Fincher.
Hummmm…. Bet they had to really dig to come up with a top ten for Best Film. So far this year’s movie offerings have been really poor. No “standouts” this year for sure.
Where is “The Visitor” in this list? The movie is driven by affecting performances including a gem by Richard Jenkins and dramatizes issues of the post 9/11 world.
You people are crazy. Slumdog Millionaire DEFINITELY deserves the Best Picture title…freakin’ TDK diehard fans are starting to get on my f***ing nerves. Stop trying to downplay every other film just to make TDK seem even better. YES, it was good…but it is not the second coming!!
Please check out my NBR commentary on my new blog. I’m welcoming any helpful format/content suggestions…
http://monikerjones.blogspot.com/2008/12/national-board-of-review-2008-2009.html
Josh Brolin should not win. Heath Ledger should win and they know it. His performance is much more memorable and it has more depth to it than Brolin’s performance. Heath Ledger was much more in Character than Brolin ever was. But hey it’s just the National Board review not the Oscars.
I was so excited to see Changeling on the list. I don’t get the mixed reviews at all, and I hope that hasn’t fueled some of the negativity surrounding it. Audiences rate it really highly, and while I’ve only seen Rachel Getting Married, Australia, and Changeling, it’s my favorite so far (and I liked the other two).
to sam: the dark knight is a lot better than slumdog millionaire. slumdog was good,dont get me wrong but TDK, MILK, WALLE, Frost/Nixon, and The Wrestler were better. To be honest i thought KUNG FU PANDA were better than Slumdog.
i meant was not were
Slumdog Millionaire was amazing it desrves the Oscar, I loved it!
“Slumdog Millionaire” deserves every plaudit it gets! Must say, Kate Winslet simply cannot be omitted fom any award this year. Outrageous. “Revolutionary Road” is far better than “Benjamin Button”. Ironically, Pitt is better at playing characters, but boring as hell as a leading man.