National Board of Review 2009: Carey Mulligan, A PROPHET, THE COVE
Tahar Rahim in A Prophet
National Board of Review 2009: Top Winners
Other National Board of Review 2009 winners:
Jacques Audiard‘s tough prison drama A Prophet, a likely Oscar candidate in the best foreign language film category, was named best foreign-language film. Michael Haneke‘s widely acclaimed The White Ribbon and Sebastian Silva‘s The Maid, which earned star Catalina Saavedra a breakthrough performer Gotham award, were both listed among the year’s top five non-English-language features.
Louie Psihoyos‘ The Cove, about the abuse and slaughter of dolphins, was named best documentary, while Pete Docter‘s box-office hit Up was the best animated feature.
The best actress winner was An Education‘s Carey Mulligan (above), who’ll probably both win a bunch of critics’ prizes in the upcoming weeks and land Golden Globe and Oscar nominations when the times comes.
Somewhat surprisingly, Meryl Streep wasn’t specifically named for anything — but she’s part of the It’s Complicated ensemble, along with Alec Baldwin, Steve Martin, John Krasinski, and Rita Wilson. Nancy Meyers directed.
Woody Harrelson‘s win in the best supporting actor category (for The Messenger) is less likely to lead to an Oscar nod — unless critics’ groups help raise his profile by sending him lots of love in the next few weeks. But then again, the supporting actor field is hardly what one would call crowded. So perhaps Harrelson has a good chance after all.
Gotham Award winner The Hurt Locker was mentioned twice: it was named one of the year’s best pictures and earned Jeremy Renner (above) the breakthrough performance by an actor award.
Among the high-profile films that were totally ignored by the National Board of Review were Peter Jackson‘s The Lovely Bones, Rob Marshall‘s Nine, Michael Moore‘s Capitalism: A Love Story, Jane Campion‘s Bright Star, Pedro Almodóvar’s Broken Embraces, Steven Soderbergh‘s The Informant!, Grant Heslov‘s The Men Who Stare at Goats, Tom Ford’s A Single Man, John Hillcoat’s The Road, Nora Ephron‘s Julie & Julia, and Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes.
Also, curiously (500) Days of Summer, The Hurt Locker, and The Messenger were included in the NBR’s top eleven best film list, but not in the top ten independent film list. I’m assuming NBR voters simply wanted to name as many movies as possible; that’s probably why there was no overlap.
In the last 10 years, nine of the NBR’s best picture winners have gone on to get an Academy Award nomination in that category; of these, three won Oscars: Slumdog Millionaire, No Country for Old Men, and American Beauty. The one NBR best picture winner that failed to land an equivalent Oscar nod was Quills back in 2000.
Also, last year, three of the NBR’s four acting winners went on to earn Oscar nods: Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married; Josh Brolin, Milk; and Penélope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Cruz ended up taking home the Oscar in the best supporting actress category. Clint Eastwood, for his kind-hearted, rifle-toting bigot in Gran Torino, was the lone NBR winner ignored by the Academy. (Actually, Eastwood surely got tons of votes, but not enough — or not enough in the first or second position in the balloting — to land a nomination).
According to its website, NBR voting members consist of "a selective group of knowledgeable film enthusiasts, academics, film professionals, and students." Information about a few of the NFB’s members can be found here.
More information about: A Prophet, Carey Mulligan, film awards, It's Complicated, Louie Psihoyos, Meryl Streep, National Board of Review Awards, National Board of Review Awards 2009, The Cove, The Hurt Locker, Woody Harrelson
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