And we're off!

National Board of Review named their top movies of the year yesterday and The Social Network really cleaned up. Here are there awards recipients:

Best Film: The Social Network
Best Director: David Fincher, The Social Network
Best Actor: Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network
Best Actress: Lesley Manville, Another Year
Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale, The Fighter
Best Supporting Actress: Jacki Weaver, Animal Kingdom
Best Foreign Language Film: Of Gods and Men
Best Documentary: Waiting for “Superman”
Best Animated Feature: Toy Story 3
Best Ensemble Cast: The Town
Breakthrough Performance: Jennifer Lawrence, Winter’s Bone
Debut Directors: Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington, Restrepo
Spotlight Award: Sylvain Chomet and Jacques Tati, The Illusionist
Best Original Screenplay: Chris Sparling, Buried
Best Adapted Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network
Special Filmmaking Achievement Award: Sofia Coppola for writing, directing, and producing Somewhere
William K. Everson Film History Award: Leonard Maltin


Top Eleven Films (In alphabetical order): Another Year, The Fighter, Hereafter, Inception, The King’s Speech, Shutter Island, The Social Network, The Town, Toy Story 3, True Grit, Winter’s Bone


Obviously The Social Network is now out in front in terms of Best Picture, Director, and Adapted Screenplay. However the biggest surprise here is the victory of Jesse Eisenberg, who many were considering an outside shot at getting into the Best Actor category. Now he is a definitive contender possibly bumping Ryan Gosling out of the top 5. I think Christian Bale's win cements him as the front runner. Lesley Manville and Jacki Weaver needed these wins to really factor into their respective races and now they are forces to be reckoned with.

It's very interesting to see a lack of love for Black Swan and 127 Hours here. Black Swan's buzz right now is pretty deafening and Hereafter and Shutter Island over 127 Hours, sure whatever you say NBoR! I am also starting to believe that The Town has a definite outside shot at getting into the Best Pic race.
I am about 5 hours away from seeing Black Swan and the excitement is overwhelming. Ballet sexual thriller starring Natalie Portman, Winona Ryder, and Barbara Hershey. This is going to be fun.