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

Dreamgirls got fucked in the ass, lol!

This is one weird list. No Little Children, Dreamgirls, United 93, The Queen. Quite a number of films in their top 10 may end up rotten at RT.

Iwo Jima is now officially a serious contender. Other than that, I don't think NBR tells us much at all. Scoresese, Whitaker, and Mirren are all safe choices; Catherine O'Hara could be another Gong Li. Expected for Gosling and Hudson. United 93 and Little Children take another beating.

I think the last film to not be nominated after being named best film by NBR was Quills...soo...


wow at the Queen and Dreamgirls!!!

Shut up and Sing made documentary top 5 and pan's labyrinth foreign film

I think we're in for a 2001 repeat, with only 2 (Maybe three) of the movies here making it to BP. This very much helps LMS too, making it in over Dreamgirls and The Queen.

Three queerbait movies (Notes, History Boys, and Prada) but no Dreamgirls. LMAO.

Go Little Miss Sunshine!!!

At least it's unpredictable. Now even more interested to see the results from LA and NY critics this weekend.

So...

Little Miss SUnshine made it in the overall Top Ten but not in the Independent Top Ten? Do they have special ruling about that?

The Indie Top 10 is like a consolation prize, which LMS didn't need.

Nice to see the Akeelah mention though.

heh .. that was weird. LMS lol

sad to see flags there .. which sort of makes me still skeptical about iwo. if flags was not there, my excitement would have risen a notch

very happy to see no dreamgirls.

Where the fuck's Children Of Men? And what's with Iwo winning and Flags of our Fathers being in the top ten? I can only assume this NBR is Clint's mother.

How...odd and frustrating. I can't believe Little Children didn't make it. It deserved it. How did Devil Wears Prada, The History Boys and The Blood Diamond get on there? Considering the fact that so many other movies have been so well reviewed, it seems very, very weird. I still don't see Iwo Jima being nominated for Best Picture.

Wow, great for Letters.

Nah, Hollywood just has a mancrush on Clint.

According to Kris, the only (?) Screenplay winner to miss a nomination was All the Pretty Horses. So, good for Stranger Than Fiction and The Painted Veil (Which I called last week, whoo!).

This list either shows us front runners for the Oscars that we might not have expected, or it is one of the years where NBR and Oscar Best Picture don't line up (there are some years where 4/5 or 5/5 films nominated for Best Picture were on the NBR list, and there are some years where 2/5 or 3/5 films nominated for Best Picture were on the NBR list). What kind of year will this be?

At first I thought that was quite an incredible jump up for Iwo Jima, but then I noticed that Flags is also nominated, which lowers the impressiveness of Iwo Jima making it (still great however).

So many films missing, most notably Dreamgirls and The Queen.

Interesting.

Peace,
Mike.

And The Departed really cashed in. It got Best Director, Best Ensemble and and on the Best Picture list.

Peace,
Mike.

edit: forgot about Chocolat and Gosford Park, although I vaguely remember that Gosford Park wasn't screened yet by the time of NBR announcement, though I could be wrong and this could save The Queen

This mean The Queen/Dreamgirls are no longer locks (though they're still one of the stronger contenders), since the past two years all the BP Oscar nominees made the top ten in NBOR. And in 2003 and 2002, only the LotR films didn't make their top ten yet still made the Oscar BP. And other list omissions in 2001, 2000, and 1999 were usuallyl $100m+ grossers (FotR, A Beautiful Mind, Erin Brockovich, Crouching Tiger, The Green Mile, The Sixth Sense) [The Cider House Rules, Chocolat, and Gosford Park are the exceptions]

The Queen in particular is the most hurt by this, especially since non-Weinsteins Miramax is its distributor. This film has a lot of respect but not much passion for it. It's probably still going to get in given the weak year, but don't be surprised if it gets BD nomination without a BP.

Dreamgirls will probably gross $100m so it's not hurt by this that much.

United 93 and Little Children should not be part of any discussion for BP anymore.

Babel may still be in the race.

Volver became stronger by default (Crouching Tiger and Life Is Beautiful weren't mentioned on the list either, so maybe foreign films don't get included)

Little Miss Sunshine is almost a lock now, and the only exception is if it gets snubbed by the SAG for an ensemble nomination (which could still happen).

some older NBR lists can be seen here:
http://www.infoplease.com/ipea/A0203221.html

It's still too early. The next 7 days will tell us more with LA, NY, AFI, and GG, but even then things could still change quickly. The guild awards remain the most accurate barometers since their members overlap with academy. Last year after Golden Globes, things didn't look all that good for Capote and Crash, and we thought Match Point and The Constant Gardener were on the way up and in good position.

Dreamgirls is the one that is affected by NBR the least. Its buzz is just getting started, and a bunch of GG noms will ensure it to stay in the race. It's more of a blow to The Queen, and GG becomes very important, both the Drama and Director categories. Getting a few mentions among LA, NY, and AFI, certainly wouldn't hurt. I expect The Queen to do all that; after all, the fact remains it has 12 100s at MC and 8.7 average at RT's COTC, indicating the love is there.

Nice to see the much-deserved Blood Diamond on the 10 best list.

Very happy to see no United 93 or Dreamgirls.

The Queen depicted the politicians as enslaved reactors to the media that made journalists seem like the powerful rulers of Britain, so there could be a critic's/writer's bias for this movie (especially since The Queen won only screenplay and lost all other categories at the British Independent Film Awards.)

The Queen needs to get at least a BP or BD in LA or NY to not completely lose momentum (they might support Scorcese/The Departed or the Eastwood films instead). If it misses out on LA or NY, it could still get in, but it will be no higher than the fifth slot. (If AFI doesn't include it in their top ten, The Queen is all but dead in BP)

This does show that Dreamgirls just wont get to a certain group of people and that will certainly effect it's frontrunner status.

I don't consider losing all but one category at BIFA a big deal. BIFA wanted to give recognition to smaller indie films from Britain since they knew The Queen is the biggest of the year and needed its support the least.



Not necessarily. Gosford Park wasn't in NBR's top 10 nor AFI's top 10 list, not even BFCA's 10 BP nominees, and still went on to get nominated.