Awards season continues on apace, and if things keep on the way things have been going this week, Kathryn Bigelow may need to enlarge her trophy cabinet. Her follow-up to the awards-laden "The Hurt Locker," Bin Laden-hunt picture "Zero Dark Thirty," hasn't even opened in theaters yet, but it already won the Best Film (along with Director and Cinematography) prize from the New York Film Critics' Circle on Monday, and now the National Board of Review (the somewhat nebulous organization who traditionally kicked off awards season, before the NYFCC moved their dates up last year) have followed suit.
In their awards, announced today, the NBR awarded "Zero Dark Thirty" Best Picture and Best Director, as well as giving Best Actress to the film's lead Jessica Chastain, who's emerged as a serious challenger in the Oscar race in that category in the last couple of weeks. As ever, the NBR named ten films in total as the best films of the year, with "Argo," "Beasts of the Southern Wild," "Django Unchained," "Les Miserables," "Lincoln," "Looper," "The Perks Of Being A Wallflower," "Promised Land" and "Silver Linings Playbook" making up the rest of the ten.
The last of those also did well. "Silver Linings Playbook" won Best Actor for Bradley Cooper and Best Adapted Screenplay for David O Russell. Meanwhile, Leonardo DiCaprio took his first prize of the season for his villainous turn in "Django Unchained." There were also a few curveballs in store: "Compliance" actress Ann Dowd took Supporting Actress, and Rian Johnson won Best Original Screenplay for "Looper." Elsewhere, "Searching For Sugar Man" won the documentary prize, and "Beasts of the Southern Wild" won Directorial Debut and Breakthrough Actress, with "The Impossible" actor Tom Holland as Wallis' male counterpart.
"Amour" won Best Foreign Language Film, with "Barbara," "The Intouchables," "No," "The Kid With The Bike" and "War Witch" as runners up, while "Arbitrage," "Bernie," "Compliance," "End Of Watch," "Hello I Must Be Going," "Little Birds," "Moonrise Kingdom," "On The Road," "Quartet" and "Sleepwalk With Me" named the best independent films of the year. What does this all mean for the award season at large? We'll weigh in in our awards column in a few hours. In the meantime, you can see the NBR's complete list of winners below.
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 Sugar Man
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