Although the New York Film Critics Circle recently robbed it of its long-held tradition of always being the first to rank the year’s best movies, the National Board Of Review has gone ahead and compiled a list anyway, as otherwise it has no reason to exist. They went to the trouble of forming a board, after all. Anyway, this year the opinionated potpourri of film professionals, professors, historians, students, and guys in Eraserhead T-shirts has bestowed its top honors on Martin Scorsese’s Hugo, awarding it both Best Film and Best Director in the first real break from those earlier, more independently minded lists we saw this week.
In fact, critical favorite The Artist, though it made the NBR’s list of 2011’s Top 10 films, was completely shut out in the major categories, while The Descendants finally started picking up some steam, mirroring the group’s 2009 championing of Up In The Air by giving George Clooney, whom it obviously just loves, Best Actor honors alongside a Best Supporting Actress nod for Shailene Woodley and a Best Adapted Screenplay win for Payne, Nat Faxon, and Jim Rash. (So at least someone from Community is having a good week.)
As with every year, it’s worth noting that the NBR is pretty much always off-base when it comes to picking eventual Oscar winners or even nominees (witness last year’s total snubs of Black Swan, 127 Hours, and The Kids Are All Right), though they’re usually on point about predicting some of the more obvious choices—like Christopher Plummer, who picked up a Best Supporting Actor award for Beginners to add to his growing trophy pile. But this time around, in a year where there aren’t any clear leaders yet, the NBR’s selections only illustrate what a muddled and unpredictable race it will be.
Best Film: Hugo
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