A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago

THE ENVELOPE, PLEASE: The National Board of Review award winners (which are the first year-end film awards) are a big pile of confusion. Letters From Iwo Jima takes the "Best Picture" crown, but more interesting is the absence of Dreamgirls from the Top 10 list (a list that surprisingly includes Blood Diamond and Devil Wears Prada), though Jennifer Hudson ties for Breakthrough Female. A pleasant surprise to see Catherine O'Hara win Best Supporting Actress. Though For Your Consideration is a disappointment, her performance is marvelous. Most indefensible award, though, is the screenplay award to Stranger Than Fiction. It's a cut-rate Adaptation knockoff without any of the complexity. How about Little Miss Sunshine instead. It's worth noting that while the NBR winner has been nominated for Best Picture consistently since 2001, none of those nominees has won. The last NBR winner to win for Best Picture was American Beauty in 1999.