This week, the New York Film Critics Circle got the Awards season going when the group announced their winners. And the hits just keep coming with today’s announcement by the National Board of Review. And if the winners are any indication it looks like Kathryn Bigelow may need to get her dress ready come Oscar night. Four years after becoming the first woman to win an Academy Award for her direction of The Hurt Locker, she delivers Zero Dark Thirty, a docudrama about the greatest manhunt in human history: the search for Osama Bin Laden.
Today, the NBR awarded Zero Dark Thirty Best Picture, Best Director, and acknowledged Jessica Chastain’s performance in the lead actress category. Up until a few weeks ago it looked like Jennifer Lawrence may just walk away with the category for her performance in Silver Linings Playbook. To go along with the best film of the year, the NBR named nine other films to complete its top ten, with Argo, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Django Unchained, Les Miserables, Lincoln, Looper, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Promised Land and Silver Linings Playbook” making up the rest of the list.
Silver Linings Playbook was also acknowledged with Best Actor for Bradley Cooper (in a surprise choice, over the likes of Daniel Day-Lewis and John Hawkes) and Best Adapted Screenplay for David O. Russell. Leonardo DiCaprio got kudos for his supporting turn in Django Unchained. Some of the bigger surprises was Ann Dowd for Supporting Actress for her role in Compliance and Rian Johnson winning Best Original Screenplay for Looper.
The NBR’s complete list of winners can seen below.
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 Original Screenplay: Rian Johnson (Looper)
Best Adapted Screenplay: David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook)
Best Animated Feature: Wreck-it Ralph
Special Achievement In Filmmaking: Ben Affleck (Argo)
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
William K. Everson Film History Award: 50 Years Of Bond Films
Best Ensemble: Les Misérables
Spotlight Award: John Goodman (Argo, Flight, Paranorman, Trouble with the Curve)
NBR Freedom Of Expression Award: Central Park Five
NBR Freedom Of Expression Award: Promised Land
Top Films
(in Alphabetical Order)
Argo
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Django Unchained
Les Misérables
Lincoln
Looper
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 Weiwei: 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
