Up in the Air with George Clooney and Vera Farmiga. As the United States remains mired in one of its worst economic crises ever, the National Board of Review (NBR) has selected Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air – the story of a frequent-flying, company-downsizing expert – as the year’s Best Picture. Also: Best Actor for George Clooney (tied with Morgan Freeman in Invictus), Best Supporting Actress for Twilight and New Moon actress Anna Kendrick, and Best Adapted Screenplay (Reitman and Sheldon Turner). As Clooney’s fellow frequent flyer, Vera Farmiga didn’t win anything, but she’s a likely Best Supporting Actress Oscar contender.
National Board of Review Awards 2009: Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air named Best Film, Precious goes mostly unappreciated
The fact that on Dec. 3 Jason Reitman’s audience-friendly, socially conscious comedy-drama Up in the Air was named Best Picture of 2009 by the National Board of Review (NBR) should come as no surprise.
On the other hand, the fact that Lee Daniels’ socially conscious drama Precious earned only one mention – Breakthrough Performance by an Actress for Gabourey Sidibe, who plays the film’s abused, pregnant, illiterate teenager – was a major upset.
One of the best-received movies of the year, Precious was nowhere to be found among either the year’s Top Ten Best Films (or rather, Best Runner-Up Films) or Top Ten Best Independent Films. And instead of Mo’Nique, the NBR picked Up in the Air performer Anna Kendrick as Best Supporting Actress.
Indeed, Up in the Air turned out to be the NBR’s top winner: in addition to its Best Picture and Anna Kendrick victories, Jason Reitman’s film earned mentions for Best Actor George Clooney (tied with Morgan Freeman for Invictus) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Reitman & Sheldon Turner).
Invictus: NBR once again honors fave Clint Eastwood
Also as expected, Invictus – Clint Eastwood’s “inspirational,” socially/politically conscious sports drama set in mid-1990s South Africa – fared nearly as well as Up in the Air.
In addition to Morgan Freeman’s co-win for his portrayal of Nelson Mandela, NBR favorite Clint Eastwood (see further below) was named Best Director while the film itself received an NBR Freedom of Expression mention – along with two highly political documentaries: Anders Østergaard’s Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country, and Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith’s The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers.
Now, why exactly Invictus merited a Freedom of Expression award is a puzzling question. Here’s wondering whether NBR voting members can answer it in logical fashion.
As for Clint Eastwood, although this is the first time he has won the NBR’s Best Director award, he and his films have been frequently honored in the recent past.
Recent Clint Eastwood victories
Mystic River (2003) and Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) were named Best Picture, while Eastwood himself was chosen Best Actor last year for his own Gran Torino (which also earned Nick Schenck the Best Original Screenplay award). And back in 2004, Eastwood took home a Special Achievement Award for producing, directing, acting in, and composing the score of Million Dollar Baby.
All this after he was given a Career Achievement Award in 1999.
Curiously, Eastwood’s Oscar-winning 1992 Western Unforgiven – not exactly a socially conscious movie – didn’t win any NBR awards. The closest it got to that was being listed as one of the year’s Top Ten films.
More National Board of Review winners: A Prophet, Carey Mulligan
Among the other NBR 2009 winners was Best Foreign Language Film A Prophet / Un Prophète, Jacques Audiard’s tough prison drama starring Tahar Rahim, and a likely Oscar candidate in that category.
Besides, Michael Haneke’s Palme d’Or winner The White Ribbon / Das Weiße Band and Sebastián 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 of dolphins and their vicious slaughter at a Japanese fishing village, was named Best Documentary, while Pete Docter’s blockbuster Up was the Best Animated Feature.
The NBR’s Best Actress winner was Carey Mulligan, who plays a 1960s London teenager about to lose her virginity with the help of a man more than twice her age (Peter Sarsgaard) in Lone Scherfig’s An Education. Mulligan will probably both win a bunch of critics’ prizes in the coming weeks, and land Golden Globe and Oscar nominations when the times comes.
It’s Complicated with Meryl Streep. The National Board of Review (NBR) has all but ignored Meryl Streep and her Nora Ephron-directed (co-)star vehicle Julie & Julia (with Amy Adams as the first half of the title). Yet Streep is, albeit without being singled out, an NBR winner, as she’s at the very center of Nancy Meyers’ adult-oriented ensemble comedy It’s Complicated, the NBR’s Best Ensemble pick. At the box office, it has been a banner year for the two-time Academy Award winner (Best Supporting Actress for Kramer vs. Kramer, 1979; Best Actress for Sophie’s Choice, 1982) and shoo-in 2010 Best Actress Oscar contender (for Julie & Julia).
Meryl Streep not so snubbed
Somewhat surprisingly, Meryl Streep wasn’t specifically named for anything – but she’s part of the Best Ensemble-winning It’s Complicated cast, which also includes Alec Baldwin, Steve Martin, John Krasinski, Zoe Kazan, Lake Bell, Rita Wilson, Mary Kay Place, Hunter Parrish, and Caitlin FitzGerald. Nancy Meyers directed.
Woody Harrelson topping the Best Supporting Actor category for Oren Moverman’s 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.
Kathryn Bigelow’s Gotham Award winner The Hurt Locker was mentioned twice: it was named one of the year’s Top Ten Films and Jeremy Renner was the Breakthrough Performance by an Actor honoree.
Out of the NBR
Among the high-profile films totally ignored by the National Board of Review were the following:
- Nora Ephron’s Julie & Julia
- 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
- Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes
Also, curiously (500) Days of Summer, The Hurt Locker, and The Messenger were included on the NBR’s Top Ten (runner-up films) list, but not on the Top Ten Independent Films list. Apparently NBR voters wanted to name as many movies as possible.
NBR Awards vs. the Oscars
In the last decade, nine of the NBR’s Best Picture winners have gone on to receive an Academy Award nomination in that category; of these, three won Oscars: Sam Mendes’ American Beauty (1999), Joel and Ethan Coen’s No Country for Old Men (2007), and Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire (2008).
The one NBR Best Picture winner that failed to land an equivalent Oscar nomination was Philip Kaufman’s Quills back in 2000.
Last year, three of the NBR’s four acting winners went on to earn Oscar nominations:
- Best Actress Anne Hathaway – Rachel Getting Married.
- Best Supporting Actress Penélope Cruz – Vicky Cristina Barcelona.
- Best Supporting Actor Josh Brolin – Milk.
Cruz was the only one who ended up taking home the Oscar, whereas Clint Eastwood’s rifle-toting, soft-at-heart Gran Torino would-be bigot turned out to be the lone NBR winner bypassed by the Academy’s Actors Branch. (In truth, Eastwood surely got tons of votes, but not enough – or not enough in the first and second slots – to land a nomination).
According to its website, the NBR voting membership consists of “a selective group of knowledgeable film enthusiasts, academics, film professionals, and students.”
National Board of Review Awards 2009
Best Film: Up in the Air
Ten Best Films (in alphabetical order):
An Education
(500) Days of Summer
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Invictus
The Messenger
A Serious Man
Star Trek
Up
Where the Wild Things AreBest Foreign Language Film: A Prophet
Five Best Foreign Language Films (in alphabetical order):
The Maid
Revanche
Song of Sparrows
Three Monkeys
The White RibbonBest Documentary: The Cove
Five Best Documentaries (in alphabetical order):
Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country
Crude
Food, Inc.
Good Hair
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon PapersBest Actress: Carey Mulligan – An Education
Best Actor (tie): George Clooney – Up in the Air; Morgan Freeman – Invictus
Best Supporting Actress: Anna Kendrick – Up in the Air
Best Supporting Actor: Woody Harrelson – The Messenger
Best Ensemble Cast: It’s Complicated
Best Director: Clint Eastwood – Invictus
Best Original Screenplay: A Serious Man – Joel & Ethan Coen
Best Adapted Screenplay: Up in the Air – Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner
Best Animated Feature: Up
Breakthrough Performance by an Actress: Gabourey Sidibe – Precious
Breakthrough Performance by an Actor: Jeremy Renner – The Hurt Locker
Top Ten Independent Films (in alphabetical order):
Amreeka
District 9
Goodbye Solo
Humpday
In the Loop
Julia
Me and Orson Welles
Moon
Sugar
Two LoversSpotlight Award for Best Directorial Debut (three-way tie): Duncan Jones – Moon; Oren Moverman – The Messenger; Marc Webb – (500) Days of Summer
Special Filmmaking Achievement Award: Wes Anderson – Fantastic Mr. Fox
NBR Freedom of Expression: Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country; Invictus; The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
William K. Everson Film History Award: Jean Picker Firstenberg
“National Board of Review Awards 2009” notes
National Board of Review (NBR) website.
Vera Farmiga and George Clooney Up in the Air image: Dale Robinette | Paramount Pictures.
Meryl Streep It’s Complicated image: Universal Pictures.
*last modified in October 2025.