and the Awards Season Begins...

The National Board of Review kicked off awards season as always by announcing there winners on Wednesday. The NBR is a 'critics' group of 'elite' movie-watchers who usually give their awards to whichever studio buttered them up the most, so the winners need to be taken with a grain of salt. Nevertheless, they have an impact on the race and officially start award season. The winners are:

Best Film: Letters From Iwo Jima (Warner Bros.)
Best Director: Martin Scorsese, The Departed (Warner Bros.)
Best Actor: Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland (Fox)
Best Actress: Helen Mirren, The Queen (Miramax)
Best Supporting Actor: Dijmon Honsou, Blood Diamond (Warner Bros.)
Best Supporting Actress: Catherine O'Hara, For Your Consideration (Warner Independent)
Best Foreign Film: Volver (Sony Pictures Classics)
Best Documentary: An Inconvenient Truth (Paramount Classics)
Best Animated Feature: Cars (Buena Vista Pictures)
Best Ensemble Cast: The Departed (Warner Bros.)
Breakthrough Performance by an Actor: Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson (ThinkFilm) (!!!) Breakthrough Performance by an Actress: (2) Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls (Dreamworks) and Rinko Kikuchi, Babel (Paramount Vantage)
Best Directorial Debut: Jason Reitman, Thank You for Smoking (Fox Searchlight)
Best Original Screenplay: Zach Helm, Stranger Than Fiction (Sony Pictures Entertainment)
Best Adapted Screenplay: Ron Nyswaner, The Painted Veil (Warner Independent)

The top 10 from the National Board of Review:

"Letters From Iwo Jima" (Warner Bros.)

"Babel" (Paramount Vantage)

"Blood Diamond" (Warner Bros.)

"The Departed" (Warner Bros.)

"The Devil Wears Prada" (20th Century Fox)

"Flags Of Our Fathers" (Warner Bros.)

"The History Boys" (Fox Searchlight)

"Little Miss Sunshine" (Fox Searchlight)

"Notes on a Scandal" (Fox Searchlight)

"The Painted Veil" (Warner Independent)

The results pretty much launches 'Letters' position as big Oscar contender and makes Warner's last minute decision to pull it into a 2006 release a very smart one. 'Letters' is, of course, the second part of Eastwood's ambitious WWII project, the first being 'Flags of Our Fathers', which flopped at the box office, prompting the studio to quickly pull the even more ambitious 'Letters', which tells the Japanese side of the battle of Iwo Jima and is entirely in Japanese, into a one week qualifying run this year. I can't say I'm thrilled that this incessant Eastwood worship does not seem to have stopped. Just when it seemed like Scorsese was finally the frontrunner to win (and for a great film), Eastwood comes chomping back for his third serving. Scorsese's win is promising and is, perhaps, a hint of how the year may turn out: with yet another Best Pic/Director split.

Whitaker's win also brings him as formidable force in the race. The actor needs all the awards he can get, if he wants to regain any of the buzz he had two months ago. Mirren's win was a foregone conclusion and simply assures everyone that she'll be holding that Oscar come February. The supporting winners are the big surprises here but they possibly won't make too much of an impact in the race as NBR is never really on the same track as Oscar when it comes to these two categories. Still, it's nice to see O'Hara mentioned and can only help her towards Oscar.

As for the rest, 'Dreamgirls' manages one meager win for former-American Idol Jennifer Hudson bringing her one step closer to that inevitable Oscar. Rinko Kikuchi gets some nice ink and Ryan fucking Gosling (!!) gets recognized for his superlative work in 'Half Nelson'. 'The Painted Veil' mention is a surprise but seems to hint at what I've suspected for a while, this may become a big Oscar player. The biggest impression the awards have made is in leaving out gung-ho frontrunners 'Dreamgirls' and 'The Queen' out of their top-ten, neither is brutally hurt by this but both will need major support from other bodies to back up their 'lock' status in the Best Picture lineup. What's even odder is that both films have been passed over for lack-luster efforts like 'The Devil Wears Prada', 'The History Boys' and 'Flags of Our Fathers'. But if you look at the studios, you'll notice that most every award is divided between Fox and Warner and their independent divisions... so, again, a grain of salt.

Post on the Grammy nominations later today...