National Board of Review Awards 2011: Costly Cinema Homage

Hugo with veteran Christopher Lee (The Mummy, The Wicker Man). Martin Scorsese’s big-budget 3D fantasy adventure revolving around the development of cinema has been both a U.S. critics favorite and a box office dud. Hugo has also turned out to be The National Board of Review’s Best Film of 2011.

National Board of Review Awards 2011: Martin Scorsese’s costly homage to cinema named Best Film

A sleeper hit in the United States, The Help topped the Best Cast category of the National Board of Review.

Set in Jackson, Mississippi, at the time of the Civil Rights movement of the mid-1960s, Tate Taylor’s socially conscious period drama The Help features Emma Stone, Bryce Dallas Howard, Viola Davis, Jessica Chastain, Chris Lowell, Mike Vogel, Allison Janney, Octavia Spencer, Ahna O’Reilly, Brian Kerwin, and Wes Chatham.

In addition to Oscar winners Mary Steenburgen (Melvin and Howard, 1980) and Sissy Spacek (Coal Miner’s Daughter, 1980), and nominee Cicely Tyson (Sounder, 1972).

Martin Scorsese’s U.K./U.S.-made, French-set homage to cinema’s early years, the well-received box office disappointment Hugo, was the National Board of Review’s Best Film of 2011.

Other National Board of Review winners:

Best Director: Martin Scorsese for Hugo.
Best Foreign Language Film: Asghar Farhadi’s Iranian drama A Separation.
Best Actor: George Clooney for The Descendants.
Best Actress: Tilda Swinton as the mother of a mass murderer in Lynne Ramsay’s We Need to Talk About Kevin.
Best Animated Feature: Gore Verbinski’s Rango.
Best Screenplay (original: Will Reiser for 50/50; adaptation: Nat Faxon, Alexander Payne, and Jim Rash for The Descendants).

National Board of Review Awards 2011
Best Film: Hugo
Top 10 Films (in alphabetical order)
The Artist
The Descendants
Drive
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
The Ides of March
J. Edgar
The Tree of Life
War Horse
Best Foreign Language Film: A Separation
Top Five Foreign Language Films (in alphabetical order)
13 Assassins
Elite Squad: The Enemy Within
Footnote
Le Havre
Point Blank
Best Director: Martin Scorsese – Hugo
Best Actor: George Clooney – The Descendants
Best Actress: Tilda Swinton – We Need to Talk About Kevin
Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer – Beginners
Best Supporting Actress: Shailene Woodley – The Descendants
Best Cast: The Help
Best Original Screenplay: 50/50 – Will Reiser
Best Adapted Screenplay: The Descendants – Nat Faxon, Alexander Payne & Jim Rash
Best Documentary: Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory
Top Five Documentaries (in alphabetical order)
Born to Be Wild
Buck
George Harrison: Living in the Material World
Project Nim
Senna
Best Animated Feature: Rango
Breakthrough Performance (tie): Felicity Jones – Like Crazy; Rooney Mara – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Spotlight Award: Michael Fassbender – A Dangerous Method, Jane Eyre, Shame, X-Men: First Class
Spotlight Award for Best Directorial Debut: J.C. Chandor – Margin Call
Top Ten Independent Films (in alphabetical order)
50/50
Another Earth
Beginners
A Better Life
Cedar Rapids
Margin Call
Shame
Take Shelter
We Need to Talk About Kevin
Win Win
Special Filmmaking Achievement Award: The Harry Potter franchise, for a distinguished translation from Book to Film
NBR Freedom of Expression: Crime After Crime & Pariah

“National Board of Review Awards 2011” notes

National Board of Review (NBR) website.

Christopher Lee Hugo image: Jaap Buitendijk | Paramount Pictures.

*last modified in October 2025.