http://chud.com/nextraimages/nbr.jpgThe National Board of Review – the fairly strange and often secretive group of non-critics who give out the awards season’s first honors – has name Clint Eastwood’s Letters from Iwo Jima as the best picture of the year, certainly making Warner Bros glad they moved the thing up from 2007. It also gives the film, unseen by all but the most influential and intelligent movie critics, like Devin Faraci of CHUD.com, a real boost when it comes to the Oscar race.

Letters was the great unknown – Flags of Our Fathers had been essentially disqualified from the race because of mixed reviews and poor box office, but you know how much everybody loves giving Clint statues. Letters allowed him to redeem himself, although I don’t think it’s best picture material – at all. It’s a good enough film, but I still have a hard time believing the Academy is going to give the big one to a two plus hour film all in Japanese where people kill themselves for much of the running time. I’m also interested in the fact that the NBR gave their best picture to a film they must have seen in the last few days, giving them absolutely no time to stew it over. It’s also interesting to note that Letters won nothing else.

This also boosts Clint back into the Best Director race, although Martin Scorsese took NBR’s award in that category. The idea of Clint stealing the Oscar from Marty again… well, it makes me a little ill, to be honest. And I wonder what the in-house thought at Warner Bros would be about that, as both films are WB movies.

Some other thoughts: Blood Diamond in the top ten? Come on, hold on to a little bit of credibility. And World Trade Center getting the "Freedom of Expression" award, and nothing at all for United 93? Fuck that noise. Big ups to Guillermo del Toro and Pan’s Labyrinth, though!

Here’s the rest of the list, which is a lot of pretty straight-forward stuff, except for Best Supporting Actress, which sort of left me scratching my head.

Best Film: LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA
Best Director: MARTIN SCORSESE, The Departed
Best Actor: FOREST WHITAKER, The Last King of Scotland
Best Actress: HELEN MIRREN, The Queen
Best Supporting Actor: DJIMON HOUNSOU, Blood Diamond
Best Supporting Actress: CATHERINE O’HARA, For Your Consideration
Best Foreign Film: VOLVER
Best Documentary: AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH
Best Animated Feature: CARS
Best Ensemble Cast: THE DEPARTED
Breakthrough Performance by an Actor: RYAN GOSLING, Half Nelson
Breakthrough Performance by an Actress: (2)
JENNIFER HUDSON, Dreamgirls and RINKO KIKUCHI, Babel

Best Directorial Debut: JASON REITMAN, Thank You for Smoking
Best Original Screenplay: ZACH HELM, Stranger Than Fiction
Best Adapted Screenplay: RON NYSWANER, The Painted Veil


Top Ten Films:
LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA

(and, in alphabetical order)

BABEL

BLOOD DIAMOND

THE DEPARTED

THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA

FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS

THE HISTORY BOYS

LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE

NOTES ON A SCANDAL

THE PAINTED VEIL



Top Five Foreign Films:
VOLVER

(and, in alphabetical order)

CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER

DAYS OF GLORY

PAN’S LABYRINTH

WATER



Top Five Documentary Films
AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH

(and, in alphabetical order)

51 BIRCH STREET

IRAQ IN FRAGMENTS

SHUT UP & SING

WORDPLAY



Top Independent Films
(in alphabetical order)

AKEELAH AND THE BEE

BOBBY

CATCH A FIRE

COPYING BEETHOVEN

A GUIDE TO RECOGNIZING YOUR SAINTS

HALF NELSON

THE ILLUSIONIST

LONESOME JIM

SHERRYBABY

10 ITEMS OR LESS

THANK YOU FOR SMOKING



Career Achievement – ELI WALLACH
Billy Wilder Award for Excellence in Directing – JONATHAN DEMME
Career Achievement in Producing – IRWIN WINKLER
William K. Everson Film History Award – DONALD KRIM
The BVLGARI Award for NBR Freedom of Expression – WATER and WORLD TRADE CENTER