Julie Christie Best Actress: 1965 Oscar Winner Is Back + Violence & 'Blood'

Julie Christie: Best Actress in Away from Her. In Sarah Polley's Canadian drama Away from Her, National Board of Review Best Actress winner Julie Christie plays a woman suffering from Alzheimer's disease, which takes her increasingly away from husband Gordon Pinsent – especially once she develops a relationship with fellow patient Michael Murphy. In films since 1962 (Crooks Anonymous, The Fast Lady), Julie Christie took home the 1965 Best Actress Oscar for her performance as Diana Scott, the personification of 1960s “Swinging London” in John Schlesinger's Darling.

Julie Christie is back: 1965 Oscar winner is National Board of Review's Best Actress

The most curious thing about the 2007 National Board of Review winners, announced on Dec. 5, is the inclusion of veteran Julie Christie (Doctor Zhivago, Don't Look Now). The 1965 Best Actress Academy Award winner for John Schlesinger's Darling was 2007's Best Actress for her portrayal of a woman suffering from Alzheimer's disease in Sarah Polley's Canadian drama Away from Her.

Christie, one of the most renowned film actresses of the last half century, has received widespread acclaim for her performance . This is her first Away from Her win so far.

Polley's drama debuted last year at the Toronto Film Festival. It has since been screened at several international festivals, including the Vancouver, Sundance, Berlin, and Dublin film fests.

Earlier this year, Christie was shortlisted in the Vancouver Film Critics Circle's Best Actress in a Canadian Film category, but the winner turned out to be Carrie-Anne Moss for Fido.

Joel & Ethan Coen's violent thriller is named Best Film

The National Board of Review's Best Film was critics' darling No Country for Old Men, Joel and Ethan Coen's violent tale about drugs, money (fast-depreciating dollars, unfortunately), and loads of dead bodies.

The Coen brothers were also responsible for the Best Adapted Screenplay, but the Best Director was Tim Burton for his version of Stephen Sondheim's dark musical Sweeney Todd, toplining Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter.

No Country for Old Men stars Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Woody Harrelson, and Kelly Macdonald, all of whom (presumably) shared the National Board of Review's Best Ensemble award.

As for their Best Actor pick, the winner was not Gordon Pinsent, Julie Christie's first-rate Away from Her leading man, but George Clooney, who plays an attorney suffering a crisis of conscience in Tony Gilroy's Michael Clayton.

Paralyzing stroke & paraplegia: The fight goes on

The Best Foreign Language Film was Julian Schnabel's French-made, real-life-inspired drama The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, which stars Mathieu Amalric as a man who, after suffering a paralyzing stroke, writes a book – by blinking one eye.

Schnabel was handed the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, while just recently in Los Angeles The Diving Bell and the Butterfly won the Audience Award at the AFI FEST.

Also in the cast: Emmanuelle Seigner, Marie-Josée Croze, Marina Hands, Anne Consigny, Niels Arestrup, Patrick Chesnais, veteran Jean-Pierre Cassel (The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, Murder on the Orient Express), and Best Actor Oscar nominee Max von Sydow (Pelle the Conqueror, 1988).

Former television talk show host Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro's Body of War – about an American Iraq War veteran who, after becoming a paraplegic, fights to end that bloody folly – was voted Best Documentary. Brad Bird's Ratatouille, for its part, was the National Board of Review's Best Animated Feature.

The former production has been shortlisted as one of the 15 Best Documentary Feature Oscar semifinalists, while the latter has received the most nominations for this year's Annie Awards.

Casey Affleck in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. The National Board of Review's Best Supporting Actor winner for his performance as the (part-)titular Robert Ford in Andrew Dominik's Western The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Casey Affleck can also be seen in his older brother Ben Affleck's Gone Baby Gone, which earned Broadway actress Amy Ryan the Best Supporting Actress award. Affleck is a potential Academy Award contender in a category that seems to belong to No Country for Old Men villain Javier Bardem.

All in the family

Casey Affleck and two-time Tony Award nominee Amy Ryan (Uncle Vanya, 2000; A Streetcar Named Desire, 2005) scored Best Supporting Actor/Actress honors for, respectively, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and Gone Baby Gone.

Ben Affleck, Casey's older brother, was voted Best New Director for the latter film, in which the younger Affleck also stars.

Other National Board of Review 2007 winners include:

• Lars and the Real Girl (Nancy Oliver) and Juno (Diablo Cody) tying in the Best Original Screenplay category.
• Best Breakthrough performers Emile Hirsch for Sean Penn's Into the Wild and Ellen Page for Jason Reitman's Juno.

Roger Deakins & Michael Douglas get Special Awards

The National Board of Review's various Special Awards will be going to the following:

• William K. Everson Film History Award: Turner Classic Movies presenter and Oscar historian Robert Osborne.
• Career Achievement in Cinematography: Roger Deakins (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, No Country for Old Men).
• Career Achievement: Michael Douglas (Best Actor Oscar winner for Wall Street, 1987).

In recent years, the Career Achievement Award has almost invariably gone to performers who began their film careers around 1960 or later and who are still working – e.g., Jane Fonda, Gena Rowlands, James Earl Jones, Christopher Plummer, Ellen Burstyn, Michael Caine, Jon Voight, Morgan Freeman, and Clint Eastwood.

Among those who have yet to receive the National Board of Review's Career Achievement Award are, to name five, Olivia de Havilland, Joan Fontaine, Jennifer Jones, Joanne Woodward, and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly actor Max von Sydow.

2007 critics' winners

The National Board of Review Awards ceremony will be held at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York City on Jan. 15 '08. Jesse L. Martin will host the event.

Below is their list of winners and those of other recently announced U.S.-based critics groups, including the New York Film Critics Circle.

After topping the National Board of Review's Best Actress category, Julie Christie has been named 2007's Best Actress by the New York Film Critics, the New York Film Critics Online, and the Washington D.C. Film Critics. In Boston, she was no. 2, behind Marion Cotillard (as Edith Piaf) in La Vie en Rose.

Something else: Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood, absent from the National Board of Review's roster*, is featured prominently in the various critics groups' lists. See below.

* Generally speaking, the National Board of Review is the first awards season group to announce their winners. Sometimes, late-year releases such as There Will Be Blood either aren't made available for viewing or arrive a bit late for many voters.

No Country for Old Men with Javier Bardem. Joel and Ethan Coen's violent thriller is the early front-runner this awards season, having received top honors from the National Board of Review, and film critics groups in New York, Boston, Washington, and Chicago. Javier Bardem, who plays a steely-eyed assassin in No Country for Old Men, is the year's Best Supporting Actor according to the New York, Boston, Washington, and Chicago critics, in addition to the New York Film Critics Online. Bardem, a 2000 Best Actor Academy Award nominee for Before Night Falls, is already the odds-on Oscar favorite in the Best Supporting Actor category.

National Board of Review Award winners

Best Film: No Country for Old Men.

Top Ten Films (runners-up) in alphabetical order:
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.
Atonement.
The Bourne Ultimatum.
The Bucket List.
Into the Wild.
Juno.
The Kite Runner.
Lars and the Real Girl.
Michael Clayton.
Sweeney Todd.

Best Foreign Language Film: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

Top Five Foreign Films (runners-up) in alphabetical order:
4 Months 3 Weeks and 2 Days.
The Band's Visit.
The Counterfeiters.
La Vie en Rose.
Lust, Caution.

Best Documentary: Body of War.

Top Five Documentary Films (runners-up) in alphabetical order:
Darfur Now.
In the Shadow of the Moon.
Nanking.
Taxi to the Dark Side.
Toots.

Best Actress: Julie Christie, Away from Her.

Best Actor: George Clooney, Michael Clayton.

Best Supporting Actor: Casey Affleck, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.

Best Supporting Actress: Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone.

Best Ensemble Cast: No Country for Old Men.

Best Director: Tim Burton, Sweeney Todd.

Best Original Screenplay (tie): Nancy Oliver, Lars and the Real Girl, and Diablo Cody, Juno.

Best Adapted Screenplay: Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men.

Best Animated Feature: Ratatouille.

Top Independent Films in alphabetical order:
Away from Her.
Great World of Sound.
Honeydripper.
In the Valley of Elah.
A Mighty Heart.
The Namesake.
Once.
The Savages.
Starting Out in the Evening.
Waitress.

Breakthrough Performance by an Actor: Emile Hirsch, Into the Wild.

Breakthrough Performance by an Actress: Ellen Page, Juno.

Best Directorial Debut: Ben Affleck, Gone Baby Gone.

Career Achievement: Michael Douglas.

William K. Everson Film History Award: Robert Osborne.

Career Achievement in Cinematography: Roger Deakins.

NBR Freedom of Expression: Persepolis, dir.: Marjane Satrapi & Vincent Paronnaud; The Great Debaters, dir.: Denzel Washington.

 

Boston Society of Film Critics winners

Best Picture: No Country for Old Men.

Best Foreign Language Film: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

Best Actress: Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose.

Best Actor: Frank Langella, Starting Out in the Evening.

Best Supporting Actress: Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone.

Best Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men.

Best Director: Julian Schnabel, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

Best Screenplay: Brad Bird, Ratatouille.

Best Documentary: Crazy Love, dir.: Dan Klores & Fisher Stevens.

Best Cinematography: Janusz Kaminski, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

Best New Filmmaker: Ben Affleck, Gone Baby Gone.

Best Ensemble Cast: Before the Devil Knows You're Dead.

Best Film Series:
Films of Charles Burnett.
Independents Week: New American Independent Cinema 2007.
Michael Haneke: A Cinema of Provocation.
The New Romanian Cinema.
Signore & Signore: Leading Ladies of Italian Cinema 1941–1977.
Welcome to the Grindhouse.

Best Rediscoveries:
Girl with a Suitcase (Claudia Cardinale).
Killer of Sheep (Charles Burnett).
The Pumpkin Eater (Harold Pinter).
White Mane (Albert Lamorisse).
Entre la mer et l'eau douce (Michel Brault).

Special Commendations:
Nick Paleologos, Massachusetts Film Office.
Kaj Wilson, outgoing curator for the Boston Jewish Film Festival.
Tom Doherty, Brandeis professor and author of Hollywood's Censor: Joseph I. Breen and the Production Code.
Rhonda Moskowitz, organizer of “Connect the Docs” filmmaker salons at Coolidge.
Steve Samuels, Boston businessman/rainmaker who financed/co-produced Michael Clayton, In the Valley of Elah, Running with Scissors.

 

New York Film Critics Awards

Best Picture: No Country for Old Men.

Best Foreign Film: The Lives of Others, dir.: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck.

Best Documentary: No End in Sight, dir.: Charles Ferguson.

Best Actress: Julie Christie, Away from Her.

Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood.

Best Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men.

Best Supporting Actress: Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone.

Best Director: Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men.

Best Screenplay: Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men.

Best Animated Film: Persepolis.

Best First Film: Sarah Polley, Away from Her.

Best Cinematographer: Robert Elswit, There Will Be Blood.

Lifetime Achievement: Sidney Lumet.

Special Critics' Award: Charles Burnett, Killer of Sheep.

 

New York Film Critics Online Awards

Best Picture (tie): The Diving Bell and the Butterfly & There Will Be Blood.

Best Foreign Language Film (tie): The Lives of Others & Persepolis.

Best Actress: Julie Christie, Away from Her.

Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood.

Best Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men.

Best Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett, I'm Not There.

Best Ensemble Performance: Before the Devil Knows You're Dead.

Best Director: Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood.

Best Screenplay: The Darjeeling Limited, Wes Anderson, Jason Schwartzman & Roman Coppola.

Best Documentary: Sicko, dir.: Michael Moore.

Best Animated Feature: Persepolis.

Best Cinematography: There Will Be Blood, Robert Elswit.

Best Music/Score: There Will Be Blood, Jonny Greenwood.

Best Breakout Performance: Ellen Page, Juno.

Best Debut Director: Sarah Polley, Away from Her.

 

Washington D.C. Film Critics winners

Best Film: No Country for Old Men.

Best Foreign Language Film: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

Best Documentary: Sicko.

Best Actress: Julie Christie, Away from Her.

Best Actor: George Clooney, Michael Clayton.

Best Supporting Actress: Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone.

Best Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men.

Best Ensemble: No Country for Old Men.

Best Director: Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men.

Best Adapted Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin, Charlie Wilson's War.

Best Original Screenplay: Diablo Cody, Juno.

Best Animated Feature: Ratatouille.

Best Breakthrough Performance: Ellen Page, Juno.

Best Art Direction: Dante Ferretti, Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

 

Chicago Film Critics Association Awards: Winners & nominations

BEST PICTURE
Into the Wild.
Michael Clayton.
* No Country for Old Men.
Once.
There Will Be Blood.

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
* 4 Months 3 Weeks and 2 Days.
Black Book.
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.
La Vie en Rose.
Lust, Caution.
The Orphanage.

BEST DOCUMENTARY
Darfur Now.
The King of Kong.
Lake of Fire.
No End in Sight.
* Sicko.

BEST DIRECTOR
Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood.
* Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men.
David Fincher, Zodiac.
Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton.
Jason Reitman, Juno.

BEST ACTRESS
Julie Christie, Away from Her.
Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose.
Angelina Jolie, A Mighty Heart.
Laura Linney, The Savages.
* Ellen Page, Juno.

BEST ACTOR
George Clooney, Michael Clayton.
Ryan Gosling, Lars and the Real Girl.
Frank Langella, Starting Out in the Evening.
* Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood.
Viggo Mortensen, Eastern Promises.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
* Cate Blanchett, I'm Not There.
Jennifer Jason Leigh, Margot at the Wedding.
Leslie Mann, Knocked Up.
Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone.
Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Casey Affleck, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.
* Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men.
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Charlie Wilson's War.
Hal Holbrook, Into the Wild.
Tom Wilkinson, Michael Clayton.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Brad Bird, Ratatouille.
* Diablo Cody, Juno.
Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton.
Tamara Jenkins, The Savages.
Kelly Masterson, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood.
* Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men.
Christopher Hampton, Atonement.
Sean Penn, Into the Wild.
James Vanderbilt, Zodiac.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
* The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Roger Deakins.
Atonement, Seamus McGarvey.
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Janusz Kaminski.
No Country for Old Men, Roger Deakins.
There Will Be Blood, Robert Elswit.

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Nick Cave & Warren Ellis.
Atonement, Dario Marianelli.
Lust, Caution, Alexandre Desplat.
* Once, Glen Hansard & Markéta Irglová.
There Will Be Blood, Jonny Greenwood.

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
Beowulf.
Meet the Robinsons.
Persepolis.
* Ratatouille.
The Simpsons Movie.

MOST PROMISING PERFORMER
Nikki Blonsky, Hairspray.
* Michael Cera, Juno & Superbad.
Glen Hansard, Once.
Carice van Houten, Black Book.
Tang Wei, Lust, Caution.

MOST PROMISING DIRECTOR
* Ben Affleck, Gone Baby Gone.
John Carney, Once.
Craig Gillespie, Lars and the Real Girl.
Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton.
Sarah Polley, Away from Her.

National Board of Review website.

Julie Christie Away from Her image: Lionsgate Films.

Casey Affleck The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford image: Warner Bros.

Javier Bardem No Country for Old Men image: Miramax Films / Paramount Vantage.

“Julie Christie Best Actress: 1965 Oscar Winner Is Back + Violence & Blood” last updated in July 2018.