NBR names Spike Jonze's HER Best Film

     The usually soft, mediocre and unimportant National Board of Review did something hip and cool today. They named Spike Jonze's new-aged romance Her Best Film and Jonze also won Best Director. Having not seen the film, and having so many films yet to see (i.e. Nebraska, Inside Llewyn Davis, American Hustle, The Wolf of Wall Street and Her), I am extremely happy with this choice. The film has been receiving rave reviews since it's premiere at the New York Film Festival. I deeply and truly love Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave but will be thrilled if Her or the Coen's Inside Llewyn Davis wins awards. I also really enjoyed Gravity and All Is Lost. However, it is surprising that 12 Years a Slave did not win anything... If Lupita Nyong'o does not win for 12 Years a Slave then I hope that Octavia Spencer does for Fruitvale Station for Best Supporting Actress. She did here and is in one of the most emotionally powerful scenes I have seen all year. Holds everyone together, while keeping strong within. She is brilliant and amazing in that film. A knockout! It is weird how Blue Is the Warmest Colour is not in the Top Five Foreign Language Films. Curious? Here is a list of the winners. Enjoy.

BEST FILM

Her

BEST DIRECTOR

Spike Jonze, Her

BEST ACTOR

Bruce Dern, Nebraska

BEST ACTRESS

Emma Thompson, Saving Mr. Banks

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Will Forte, Nebraska

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Octavia Spencer, Fruitvale Station

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

The Past   d. Asghar Farhadi

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

The Wind Rises   d. Hayao Miyazaki

BEST DOCUMENTARY

Stories We Tell   d. Sarah Polley

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Joel & Ethan Coen, Inside Llewyn Davis

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Terence Winter, The Wolf of Wall Street

BEST DIRECTORIAL DEBUT

Ryan Coogler, Fruitvale Station

BEST ENSEMBLE

Prisoners

BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE - ACTRESS

Adele Exarchopoulus, Blue Is the Warmest Colour

BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE - ACTOR

Michael B. Jordan, Fruitvale Station

WILLIAM K. EVERSON AWARD FOR FILM HISTORY

George Stevens, Jr

CREATIVE INNOVATION IN FILMMAKING AWARD

Gravity

SPOTLIGHT AWARD

Career Collaboration of Martin Scorsese & Leonardo DiCaprio 

NBR FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

Wadjda   d. Haifaa Al_Mansour

TOP TEN FILMS (alphabetical order)

12 Years a Slave

Fruitvale Station

Gravity

Inside Llewyn Davis

Lone Survivor

Nebraska

Prisoners 

Saving Mr. Banks

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

The Wolf of Wall Street

TOP TEN INDEPENDENT FILMS (alphabetical order)

Ain't Them Bodies Saints

Dallas Buyers Club

In A World...

Mother of George

Much Ado About Nothing

Mud 

The Place Beyond the Pines

Short Term 12

Sightseers

The Spectacular Now

TOP FIVE FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILMS

Beyond the Hills

Gloria

The Grandmaster

A Hijacking

The Hunt

TOP FIVE DOCUMENTARIES

20 Feet from Stardom

The Act of Killing

After Tiller

Casting By

The Square

Photo credit by IMDB.