'Up in the Air' wins National Board of Review

The National Board of Review has named Up in the Air as its Best Picture of 2009. It’s a huge boost to its overall award chances, given that last year’s NBR honoree was eventual Oscar winner Slumdog Millionaire. Invictus and The Messenger also fared very well overall. The complete list of winners is below. Though Up in the Air was my prediction for NBR’s winner, I managed to forecast only six of the NBR’s Top 11 correctly. (Missing from that list, by the way? Precious and Nine.) Congratulations to commenters Ama, MrFord, BenG, and Ibad for predicting 8 each. And don’t forget to follow me on Twitter (@davekarger) to get instant Oscar-related updates.

Best Picture Up in the Air

Top 10 Films

An Education

(500) Days of Summer

The Hurt Locker

Inglourious Basterds

Invictus

The Messenger

A Serious Man

Star Trek

Up

Where the Wild Things Are

Best Director Clint Eastwood, Invictus

Best Actor George Clooney, Up in the Air, and Morgan Freeman, Invictus

Best Actress Carey Mulligan, An Education

Best Supporting Actor Woody Harrelson, The Messenger

Best Supporting Actress Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air

Best Original Screenplay Joel and Ethan Coen, A Serious Man

Best Adapted Screenplay Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner, Up in the Air

Breakthrough Actor Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker

Breakthrough Actress Gabourey Sidibe, Precious

Best Foreign-Language Film A Prophet

Top Five Foreign-Language Films

The Maid

Revanche

Song of Sparrows

Three Monkeys

The White Ribbon

Best Documentary The Cove

Top Five Documentaries

Burma VJ

Crude

Food, Inc.

Good Hair

The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers

Best Animated Film Up

Best Ensemble Cast It’s Complicated

Best Directorial Debut Duncan Jones, Moon; Oren Moverman, The Messenger; Marc Webb, (500) Days of Summer

BVLGARI Award for Freedom of Expression Burma VJ, Invictus

Top 10 Independent Films

Amreeka

Goodbye Solo

Humpday

In the Loop

Julia

Me and Orson Welles

Moon

Sugar

Two Lovers

Check out my OscarWatch interview with Up in the Air’s Jason Reitman, after the jump.