In another major awards win for Kathryn Bigelow's latest, Zero Dark Thirty took major nods from the National Board of Review, receiving kudos for Best Film, Best Director and Best Actress for Jessica Chastain.
[Related: NY Film Critics Circle Spices Up Oscar Race With 'Zero Dark Thirty' Best Picture Pick]
Also taking major wins by the group were Bradley Cooper for Best Actor for Silver Linings Playbook, Leonardo DiCaprio (Best Supporting Actor) for Django Unchained, while Michael Haneke's Cannes Palme d'Or winner Amour took Best Foreign Language Film. Sundance '12 winner Beasts of the Southern Wild won both Best Directorial Debut for Benh Zeitlin and the Breakthrough Actress prize for Quevenzhané Wallis. Ben Affleck's Argo received a Special Achievement in Filmmaking mention.
Meredith Vieira will host the National Board of Review Gala on January 8th in New York.
2012 National Board of Review Prizes:
Best Film: Zero Dark Thirty
Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty
Best Actor: Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook
Best Actress: Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty
Best Supporting Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio, Django Unchained
Best Supporting Actress: Ann Dowd, Compliance
Best Original Screenplay: Rian Johnson, Looper
Best Adapted Screenplay: David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook
Best Animated Feature: Wreck-It Ralph
Special Achievement in Filmmaking: Ben Affleck, Argo
Breakthrough Actor: Tom Holland, The Impossible
Breakthrough Actress: Quvenzhané Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild
Best Directorial Debut: Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild
Best Foreign Language Film: Amour
Best Documentary: Searching for Sugarman
William K. Everson Film History Award: 50 Years of Bond Films
Best Ensemble: Les Misérables
Spotlight Award: John Goodman (Argo, Flight, Paranorman, Trouble with the Curve)
NBR Freedom of Expression Award: Central Park Five
NBR Freedom of Expression Award: Promised Land
Top Films
(in alphabetical order)
ARGO
BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD
DJANGO UNCHAINED
LES MISÉRABLES
LINCOLN
LOOPER
THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER
PROMISED LAND
SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK
Top 5 Foreign Language Films
(In Alphabetical Order)
BARBARA
THE INTOUCHABLES
THE KID WITH A BIKE
NO
WAR WITCH
Top 5 Documentaries
(In Alphabetical Order)
AI WEIWEI: NEVER SORRY
DETROPIA
THE GATEKEEPERS
THE INVISIBLE WAR
ONLY THE YOUNG
Top 10 Independent Films
(In Alphabetical Order)
ARBITRAGE
BERNIE
COMPLIANCE
END OF WATCH
HELLO I MUST BE GOING
LITTLE BIRDS
MOONRISE KINGDOM
ON THE ROAD
QUARTET
SLEEPWALK WITH ME
The New York Film Critics Circle Association certainly livened up the Oscar race today by choosing Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty as the Best Picture of 2012 and picking two real surprises in the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor categories: respectively, Rachel Weisz for The Deep Blue Sea and Matthew McConaughey for two movies, Magic Mike and Bernie. more »
Kathryn Bigelow's angular thriller Zero Dark Thirty begins and ends with events that have been seared into public memory — the attacks on September 11, 2001 and the death of Osama bin Laden on May 2, 2011 in Abbottabad, Pakistan, two incidents that bookended a decade in which America's sense of security and place in the world were radically shaken. more »
Kathryn Bigelow’s ambitious Oscar contender Zero Dark Thirty started out as a film about the 2001 siege of Tora Bora hunting down al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, but as the Academy Award-winner told a rapt audience at the picture's buzz-building debut in Beverly Hills on Sunday, it changed direction in one quick, fateful instant.
“At about 10 o’clock at night on May 1, 2011 we realized we no longer had a project about the hunt for Osama bin Laden,” Bigelow said at a packed post-screening Q&A at the Pacific Design Center, “because he was no longer living.”
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While there's no shortage of burly action hero types in Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty, it's Jessica Chastain who's front and center hunting down Osama bin Laden in the first trailer — and that in itself is worth noting as you mark your calendars for the December Oscar contender.
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Did you just see that glass of water tremble à la Jurassic Park? Could that distant rumbling be Harvey Weinstein barreling T-Rex style down the endless red carpet leading to the Kodak Theater in February? Indeed, with the announcement this week that Seth McFarlane will be hosting the 85th Academy Awards, Oscar season is now officially under way. Screeners and For Your Consideration ads shall soon be raining down upon us. So this seems as good an occasion as any to assess the buzz around Oscar hopefuls in the major categories. more »
Look what came out of all that right-wing saber-rattling in January: "According to documents obtained by Judicial Watch, the White House, Defense Department and CIA all offered rare, if not unprecedented, access to Boal and [Kathryn] Bigelow. The access included a guided tour of a secret CIA planning facility called The Vault and linking Boal up with what a Defense Department official described as 'a planner, SEAL Team 6 operator and commander.' The only restriction was that Boal not disclose the SEAL’s name." Meanwhile, America's "top commando officer" denies everything: "We don’t have a partnership [...] I have no interaction and no one on my staff has any interaction with — what’s her name? Bigelow?" [Danger Room]
Also in this afternoon's edition of Biz Break: Woody Allen's next adds another actor to its growing ensemble, Kathryn Bigelow picks up another cast member of her own for Zero Dark Thirty, and more...
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