So Here We Go.....

The awards season has officially kicked off with the release of the National Board of Review awards. Truth be told, the NBoRs are never much to sneeze at in terms of Oscar traction, but by being the first of the group each and every year, it is essentially the season opener if we're thinking in sports terms.

The big winner, so to speak, was Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire taking home Best Picture. The crowd-pleasing film continues to wow audiences after it's big win at the Toronto Film Festival. Despite going against heavier material such as Doubt and prestige pics like Frost/Nixon (remember how much they adored the dark and pretigious last year?), it seems to be the consistent winner so far, early in the race. Best Director, however, was handed to David Fincher for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The Fight Club director has always had a strong cult following, but has never had awards appeal, but he already seems like a lock for Benjamin Button.

The acting awards were well spread around. For Best Actress, the NBoR looked over Meryl Streep for Doubt and Kate Winslet for Revolutionary Road, to give it to the less illustrious Anne Hathaway for the beautiful Rachel Getting Married. For Best Actor, projected front-runners Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler) and Frank Langella (Frost/Nixon) were also passed over for Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino. The buzz for his career acheivement acting Oscar had to start somewhere, and the NBoR is the best place to start.

For Best Supporting Actor, they jumped off the Heath Ledger Dark Knight bandwagon, and gave it to Josh Brolin in Milk. Brolin, it's possible, will probably be given many awards as a blanket for all the brilliant supporting performances in that film. The one category that seemed to go according to plan was Penelope Cruz winning for her fiery supporting turn in Vicky Cristina Barcelona. The Original Screenplay award went to Nick Schenk for Gran Torino, while the Adapted Screenplay award was a tie between Simon Beaufoy for Slumdog Millionaire and Eric Roth for his extended take on the incredibly succinct The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

Other awards of notice were Dev Patel (for Slumdog Millionaire) winning for Best Breakthrough Actor Performance, while Best Breakthrough Actress Performance went to Viola Davis for Doubt. Best Directorial Debut went to Courtney Hunt for Frozen River (while Melissa Leo won the Spotlight Award for the same film, along with Richard Jenkins for The Visitor), and Best Animated Feature went to WALL-E. To round everything out, Best Ensemble Cast went to the cast of Doubt. The rest of the NBoR awards, including lists of the best films of 2008, best Foreign-Language film, as well as Best Documentary here's a link to see them.

The National Board of Review is not as big of an Oscar precursor as say the Golden Globes nominations next week, but don't scoff at the effect an early bid can have. I was most surprised by Eastwood's win, since I was thinking that the 'Career Achievement nomination' would be going to stage actor great Frank Langella. If the NBoR is any indication, the Best Actor shortlist will have to make room for both of them. Slumdog Millionaire has got the first jump on the awards season, but we'll see what happens as the next Oscar precursor awards (New York Film Circle awards, LA Film Association) all come next week.