With last week's Spirit Award noms, the indie Gotham Awards and today's National Board of Review announcements, the Oscar season has officially begun (starter gun noise).

No Country for Old Men, the Coen brothers' violent, sprawling drama starring Josh Brolin, Tommy Lee Jones and Javier Bardem, took top honors this year for best picture. It also earned honors for the Coens in the
adapted-screenplay category and for best ensemble cast. Roger Deakins,
the Coens' longtime cinematographer, will receive a career achievement
award from the group.

The Board of Review is always one of the first to name their top picks of the year, and many of them make it all the way into the Oscar nominations list. Here's the list of their winners:

Best Picture: No Country for Old Men
Best Director: Tim Burton, Sweeney Todd
Best Actor: George Clooney, Michael Clayton
Best Actress: Julie Christie, Away from Her
Best Supporting Actor: Casey Affleck, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Best Supporting Actress: Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone
Best Filmmaking Debut: Ben Affleck, Gone Baby Gone
Breakthrough Actor: Emile Hirsch, Into the Wild
Breakthrough Actress: Ellen Page, Juno
Best Original Screenplay: Diablo Cody, Juno, and Nancy Oliver, Lars and the Real Girl (tie)
Best Adapted Screenplay: Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
Best Foreign-Language Film: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Best Animated Film: Ratatouille
Best Documentary: Body of War

The rest of the Board of Review's Top Ten movies of the year (in alphabetical order)
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Atonement
The Bourne Ultimatum
The Bucket List
Into the Wild
Juno
The Kite Runner
Lars and the Real Girl
Michael Clayton
Sweeney Todd

--Ellen

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