NOOoooooo. George Clooney and The Descendants just got a MAJOR boost for the awards season. So much for my one-woman campaign “Say No To Oscar-Date Barbie”. Oscar-Date Barbie is going to be there! She’s going to be styled like Grace Kelly! She’s going to look smug and nervous and Clooney will look crotchety. It has been written.
So The National Board of Review released their awards list for this year. It does change up the expectations game somewhat – remember, Brad Pitt and Tree of Life got a boost from The New York Critics Circle Awards, announced earlier this week. Here’s the breakdown of the NBR awards:
Best Film: Hugo
Best Films of the Year (the shortlist): The Artist, The Descendants, Drive, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, The Ides of March, J. Edgar, Tree of Life and War Horse.
Best Actress: Tilda Swinton, We Need To Talk About Kevin
Best Actor: George Clooney, The Descendants
Best Supporting Actress: Shailene Woodley, The Descendants
Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer, Beginners
Best adapted screenplay: Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash’s script, The Descendants
Best original screenplay: Will Reiser, 50/50
Best Ensemble: The cast of The Help
Spotlight Award: Michael Fassbender, for all of his roles this year
Breakthrough Awards: Felicity Jones in Like Crazy and Rooney Mara in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.
Yay for Tilda Swinton! I’ve been thinking that she would get an Oscar nomination for Kevin, and this gives her a nice boost. It also kind of sucks for Viola Davis, who likely hoped to glide through the season with all of the big accolades. Also YAY for Michael Fassbender. I wonder if Fassbender and Clooney will hang out during the awards season? I hope not. But it will probably happen – Fassbender loves a good party. Let’s get back to Clooney – does the NBR mean that Clooney’s a shoo-in for Best Actor? Not really. It means that he’s pretty much guaranteed a nomination, but there’s still a lot of campaigning to do.
One last thing: is Christopher Plummer the shoo-in for Best Supporting? Beginners came out of nowhere! Plummer might be a good position to get a “career” Oscar.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
He also won for up in the air and micheal clayton…
The last two times he won that award he lost the Oscars. They love it over there
I just saw the Descendants, and thought he did very well in the role. I liked the film, but found it a bit underwhelming, given all the praise it’s received. But then again, I was kind of underwhelmed by Sideways also.
I just saw Descendants and I loved the movie and the story line. I thought George’s performance was Oscar worthy. My husband and I usually do not share the same views when it comes to movies and he actually was quite impressed. I would strongly recommend paying the ticket price to see this movie…and I am not even a big Clooney fan.
NBR is all over GC, it’s his 3rd win, the oscar race is still very wide open at this point.
This article is really funny. Was posted over at Awards Daily.
The NBR loves George Clooney more than their own little lunches, and will give him something if he’s breathing. This is his third Best Actor nod from them in the last five years. So be it! They also named “The Ides of March” one of their ten Best Pictures. They gave Stacey Keibler an award for Best Girlfriend of a Star, too. (Just kidding.)
http://www.showbiz411.com/2011/12/01/scorseses-hugo-named-best-picture-by-national-board-of-review
That article is perfect. I also think they were unhappy with the New York group going first, so they did not repeat any of their picks and included Tattoo as well. Clooney plays Clooney and folks think he should get an award.
They should be called out for including Ides and J Edgar just like the globes did last year–second rate films with big stars and directors hoping to get them to their party.
the NBR are Clooney and Eastwood lovers..Clooney has won two other times and they picked J edgar (41% RT) OVER moneyball(95%RT)..does that even sound right?
fuck. looks like we are going to have to put up with these two douches (clooney and his boob tape bimbo) all through award season.
I think I might be into the Oscars this year. It’ll at least be bro-tastic, with Brad Pitt and Georgie-boy here.
They should save money and advertise the ceremony thusly:
SWINTON.
OT:What about viola davis… What r chances of wining
brad was better than clooney this year ,,, its brad Oscar ..and when i say so it is so..:)
this is all to boost the competition and rating.
j Edgar ? for god sake i love Eastwood but this was not good one
it’s not that I dislike George, I just don’t want him to win the oscar
I want it to be someone a bit more edgy
like who? I hear you ask 🙂
Like who?
😉
After some hours of deliberation we actually agree with you..! And, we actually don’t care who either..!
Don’t get us wrong, we love us some GC but please, the PR rubbish and showmance really is too much and it’s beyond a joke now!
So NO he doesn’t deserve to win if he can’t win on the merit of acting in the film. The mere fact that he was being touted as a winner BEFORE the film was released is enough to send your vote elsewhere alone..!
Cheating is the word that springs to mind but, there could be another/others that describe it better within the context of the film industry?
YAY CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER!! I saw “Beginners” and he was absolutely perfect in it. Also, yay for Will Reiser and yay for Fassie. yay all around 🙂
I wouldn’t say it gave him a boost, because according to several blogs he’s been the frontrunner for weeks. If anything this hopefully will give Harry Potter a boost come Oscar time, and even 50/50 a boost.
It is amazing before the movies were even out and not even seeing his performance that Clooney was going to win the Oscar for best actor for Descendants and the ides of March would be nominated in the best picture category without many people seeing both of them and before other really great movies had been seen. It is all about who you know and not what you know. I saw all 3 movies and the Ides of March was ok, I liked the play better which Ides was written from and I like Brad Pitt better in Moneyball than George in Descendants
To me The Best Actor category is up in the air.You never really know who is going to be taking home Oscar until they announce the winners name on Oscar night.With Brad Pitt,Michael Fassbender and possibly Matt Damon in mix as well as the movie The Artist (getting Oscar buzz)It could be anybodies to win.
With Fassbender ending up the runner-up for the Best Actor award at the NYFCC and getting a shout-out at the NBR, I think his Oscar nomination is solidifying by the day, without being a lock. Go Michael go!
I think the lineup will be this one: Clooney/Pitt/Fassbender/Oldman/Dujardin. And I would have NO PROBLEM with this overly sexy category ;).
After having the meatiest roles for black women this past year be some damn maids…the industry better NOT screw Viola and Octavia out what they’re due. It would be ABSURD. And it’s funny too cause as “progressive” as Hollywood thinks it is…it’s really not. They’re behind on quite a bit…
I thought the Descendants sucked big time. It was slow, boring and you left the theater thinking: “who cares?”
I think the last six GC movies have been like that. Slow and boring. His last good acting role was Michael Clayton
The Descendants
The Ides of March
The American
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Men Who Stare at Goats
Up in the Air
Oh God, who cares about George Clooney; all he has to do is draw breath and he gets nominated! It’ll be nice to see Plummer win (would be nicer if somehow the stars alligned and Rickman won) but I’ll take Plummer if that’s all I can get