NEW YORK (Reuters) - Grim crime thriller "No Country for Old Men,"
from brothers Joel and Ethan Coen, was named best film of 2007 by the
National Board of Review of Motion Pictures on Wednesday in the first
major award of Oscar season.
George Clooney won best actor for his role as a conflicted attorney in
"Michael Clayton" and Julie Christie earned the best actress honor
playing an Alzheimer's disease sufferer who puts herself into a nursing
facility in "Away From Her."
"No Country," which also won awards for best adapted screenplay and
best ensemble cast, is the 12th in a series of odd, ironic feature
films written, produced and directed by the Coen Bros, including "O
Brother, Where Art Thou?" and "Fargo."
The often bloody film stars Josh Brolin as a hunter who absconds with
millions of dollars he found after a drug deal gone awry. Javier Bardem
plays an assassin on his trail and Tommy Lee Jones is the sheriff
chasing both.
NBR members include educators, historians and film industry
professionals, and its awards can portend winners at the Oscars, the
world's top movie honors presented in February by The Academy of Motion
Picture Arts and Sciences.
Still, NBR honors are no guarantee of Oscar success. The board
sometimes disdains box office blockbusters in favor of more esoteric
choices, and two years ago delayed announcing winners after garnering
criticism for omitting directors of critically acclaimed films like
"Capote" and "Walk the Line."
KEY WINNERS
This year, Tim Burton took the best director award for musical "Sweeney
Todd," featuring his wife Helena Bonham Carter and "Pirates of the
Caribbean" star Johnny Depp.
Amy Ryan won the best supporting actress award for Ben Affleck's dark
kidnapping saga, "Gone Baby Gone," which secured the best directorial
debut award for Affleck.
His brother Casey Affleck was named best supporting actor playing the
man who murders outlaw Jesse James in "The Assassination of Jesse James
by the Coward Robert Ford."
The NBR's list of top 10 films includes "Assassination of Jesse James,"
"Atonement," Sean Penn's "Into the Wild" and "The Kite Runner," as well
as action film "The Bourne Ultimatum."
Notably absent was director Ridley Scott's crime epic "American
Gangster" with Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe.
Julian Schnabel's "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" won the best
foreign film award. "Body of War" won best documentary and
"Ratatouille" was named best animated feature.
Emile Hirsch won an award for breakthrough performance by an actor for
"Into the Wild," and Ellen Page took the breakthrough performance by an
actress award for "Juno."
"Juno" and "Lars and the Real Girl" tied for best original screenplay.
The board also presented a career achievement award to Michael Douglas,
an Oscar winner for best actor for "Wall Street" in 1988. He and Saul
Zaentz shared a best picture Oscar for producing "One Flew Over the
Cuckoo's Nest" in 1976.
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