On Dec 1st, NBR will announce their picks for 2004.

Here's a rundown of last year's winners.

Best Film
Mystic River, Clint Eastwood, presented by Laura Linney

Top Ten Films
Mystic River, The Last Samurai, The Station Agent, 21 Grams, House of Sand and Fog, Lost in Translation, Cold Mountain, In America, Seabiscuit, Master and Commander

Best Foreign Language Film
Barbarian Invasions, Denys Arcand, presented by Dan Aykroyd

Top Five Documentaries
The Fog of War, Capturing the Friedmans, My Architect, Winged Migration, Spellbound

Top Foreign Films
Barbarian Invasions, Best of Youth, Monsieur Ibrahim, Autumn Spring, Man on the Train

Best Actor
Sean Penn, Mystic River and 21 Grams, presented by Robert De Niro

Best Actress
Diane Keaton, Something's Gotta Give, presented by Candice Bergen

Best Supporting Actor
Alec Baldwin, The Cooler, presented by Christopher Plummer

Best Supporting Actress
Patricia Clarkson, Pieces of April and The Station Agent, presented by Bobby Cannavale

Best Acting By An Ensemble
The cast of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Liv Tyler, Billy Boyd, Andy Serkis, and Bernard Hill, presented by Lauren Bacall

Breakthrough Performance Actor
Paul Giamatti, American Splendor,
presented by Stanley Tucci

Breakthrough Performance Actress
Charlize Theron, Monster, presented by Gary Sinise

Best Director
Edward Zwick, The Last Samurai, presented by Claire Danes

Outstanding Directorial Debut
Vadim Perelman, House of Sand and Fog, presented by Shohreh Aghdashloo

Best Screenplay
Adapted - Cold Mountain, Anthony Minghella, presented by Kathy Baker
Original - In America, Jim Sheridan, Naomi Sheridan, and Kirsten Sherdian, presented by Salma Hayek

Best Documentary
The Fog of War, Errol Morris, presented by Tom Brokaw

Best Animated Feature
Finding Nemo, Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich, & Graham Walters, presented by John Ratzenberger

Best Film or Mini-Series Made for Cable TV
Angels in America, Jeffrey Wright, presented
by Charles Busch

Career Achievement Award
Morgan Freeman, presented by Clint Eastwood

Billy Wilder Award For Excellence In Directing
Norman Jewison, presented by John Patrick Shanley

Special Filmmaking Achievement
Sofia Coppola, for writing, directing, and producing Lost in Translation, presented by Frances McDormand

Career Achievement - Music Composition
Hans Zimmer, presented by Barry Levinson

Career Achievement - Cinematography
John Toll, presented by Edward Zwick

William K. Everson Award For Film History
A Decade Under the Influence, Richard LaGravenese and Ted Demme, presented by Denis Leary

Producers Award
Gale Anne Hurd, presented by Josh Lucas

Kathleen Kennedy, presented by Sigourney Weaver

Christine Vachon, presented by John Waters

Freedom Of Expression
Capturing the Friedmans, Dirty Pretty Things, The Magdalene Sisters, September 11, presented by Samantha Morton

Special Recognition For Excellence In Filmmaking
(Listed alphabetically)
American Splendor, Bend It Like Beckham, The Cooler, Dirty Pretty Things, Girl With A Pearl Earring, Pieces of April, The Secret Lives of Dentists, Shattered Glass, The Statement, Thirteen, Whale Rider, presented by Hope Davis

Is there a listing of the movies in competition? Does this include later movies like A Love Song for Bobby Long, The Phantom of the Opera, The Aviator, Closer, etc.

There's no list but if the film is a 2004 release, it qualifies.

The NBR always tends to be a little...off...in terms of their best picture awards (previous winners: The Hours, Moulin Rouge, Quills, Gods and Monsters), but they're usually spot-on with their acting awards.

I'm excited, though. The precedent for the rest of the season is usually set here.

Well I'm glad they didn't completely snub The Last Samurai and Cold Mountain like happened with later awards.

I'm excited for this year's Top Ten!

Eternal Sunshine will be on it.

For some reason I am convinced that Eternal Sunshine will get the top spot.

My favorite!

Their best picture almost alwyas gets a best picture nomination at the Oscars (the two exceptions recently being Gods and Monsters and Quills).

Best Picture: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Sideways, or Closer.
Best ACtress: Julia Roberts in Closer, Nicole kidman in Dogville, Julie Deply in Before Sunset, or Catalina Sandino Moreno in Maria Full of Grace (it'll make an Oscsar contender of SOMEONE).

Breakthrough Female Performance: Virginia Madsen in Sideways, Catalina Sandino Moreno in Maria Full of Grace, or Natalie Portman in Closer.

My predictions:

1. Picture - Considering they like period pieces and don't shy away from sexual subject matter, my prediction is....Kinsey!

Alternate: Finding Neverland

2. Actor - Liam Neeson for Kinsey
Alternate: Jamie Foxx for Ray and Collateral

3. Actress - Kate Winslett for Eternal Sunshine and Finding Neverland
Alternate: hmm...Nicole Kidman for Dogville and Birth

More thoughts later.....

Best Director:

1. Mike Nichols - Closer
Alternate: Bill Condon - Kinsey

Best Supporting Actor:

2. Peter Sarsgaard - Kinsey
Alternate - Freddie Highmore - Finding Neverland

Best Supporting Actress:

3. Natalie Portman - Closer and Garden State
Alternate - Virginia Madsen - Sideways

Best Ensemble - The cast of Sideways
Alternate - The cast of Kinsey

4. Breakthrough - male - Jim Caveziel - The Passion Of The Christ
Alternate - Clive Owen - Closer

5. Breakthrough - female - Catalina Sandino Moreno - Maria Full Of Grace
Alternate - Emmy Rossum - The Phantom Of The Opera

These are all total guesses, but hey, it's fun!

9 days left....

I think their list will be topped off with Closer.
They seem to always pick character pieces!

http://www.thefilmexperience.net has a really good analysis of past NBR winners and what they seem to like. They are predicting either Closer or Kinsey, with The Phantom Of The Opera in third place.

Closer makes sense. After last year's ultra-depressing Mystic River.

They think it's between Closer and Kinsey, but went with Closer because most are predicting Kinsey it seems.

Where exactly do they discuss it?

I went to the site but can't find a link to the NBR discussion.

It's in the Oscar diary section - or try this:

http://www.thefilmexperience.net/Awards/oscardiary.html

I would love to see Kill Bill Volume 2 make their top ten list.

I would imagine their list would look something like this (unless they decide to include F 9/11 and The Incredibles although both films have their own categories within the NBR Awards). Also, there's Hotel Rwanda and Million Dollar Baby to deal with.

Kinsey
Closer
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Before Sunrise
Finding Neverland
Kill Bill Volume 2
The Aviator
Ray
Phantom of the Opera
Sideways

I think they are going to go for Kinsey, Eternal Sunshine or Sideways.

It's before sunset :wink:

My Predicted top 10 (apparantly they will not screen Soanglish).

1. Closer
2. Hotel Rwanda
3. Kinsey
4. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
5. The Phantom of the opera
6. Sideways
7. Tarnation
8. The Aviator
9. Garden State
10. Dogville

Alternates: Ray, Finding Neverland


Best Director: Pedro Almodovar- Bad Education
Alternate: Alexander Payne- Sideways

Best Actor: Don Cheadle- Hotel Rwanda
Alternate: Jamie Foxx- Ray

Best Actress: Annette Bening- Being Julia
Alternate: Kate Winslet- Eternal sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Best Supporting Actor:Peter SArsgaard- Kinsey
Alternate: Owen Wilson- The Life Aquatic

Best supporting Actress: Natalie Portman- Closer
Alternate: Virginia Madsen- Sideways

Breakthrough Male Performance: Gael Garcia Bernal- The Motorcycle Diaries/Bad Education
Alternate: Jamie Foxx- Ray/Collateral

Breakthrough FEmale Performance:Catalina Sandino Moreno- Maria Full of Grace
Alternate: Emmy Rossum- Phantom of the Opera

If it wasn't for the flawed speech about Superman, the movie would have been perfect!

Here is my take....

1. Closer
2. Kinsey
3. Sideways
4. The Aviator
5. Finding Neverland
6. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
7. Hotel Rwanda
8. Ray
9. Before Sunset (lol, more wishful thinking than safe prediction)
10. the Phantom of the Opera

That was the best part of the movie!

that was the most flawed part of the movie .... tarentino had no idea what he was talking about there.

You are being too picky.

its actually quite true .. he got the whole thing wrong!! What makes it particulary funny is that he CHOSE superman of all the people.

What he wanted to convey with his speech was right, Arsi. Maybe he did a bad job picking the comic book character for his speech, but still the content of the speech was good.