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'Hugo' Snags Top Honors By National Board of Review

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Martin Scorsese’s 3D family film Hugo has been awarded the National Board of Review’s prize for Best Film of 2011.  This came as a surprise being that the Thanksgiving-weekend release  was a late comer to the awards race and could have potentially been dismissed as a kids movie.  Hugo also won the Best Director award, while the possible favorite, The Descendants, also picked up multiple citations, for Best Actor (George Clooney), Best Supporting Actress (Shailene Woodley), and Best Adapted Screenplay.

While the NBR is not made up of critics or Oscar voters, the group’s choice of “Hugo” over the likes of “The Artist” and “The Descendants” definitely improves its chance as a serious Oscar contender.

Along with winning the Best Film and Best Director honors for “Hugo,” Scorsese ‘s two-part George Harrison documentary “Living in the Material World,” which ran on HBO, was named one of the five best documentaries.

Check out other big winners below:

Best Film Hugo

Top 10 Films
The Artist
The Descendants
Drive
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
The Ides of March
J. Edgar
The Tree of Life
War Horse

Best Actor: George Clooney, The Descendants

Best Actress: Tilda Swinton, We Need to Talk About Kevin

Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer, Beginners

Best Supporting Actress: Shailene Woodley, The Descendants

Best Director: Martin Scorsese, Hugo

Best Original Screenplay: Will Reiser, 50/50

Best Adapted Screenplay: Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon & Jim Rash, The Descendants

Breakthrough Performance: Felicity Jones, Like Crazy and Rooney Mara, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Best Foreign Film: A Separation

Top 5 Foreign Films
13 Assassins
Elite Squad: The Enemy Within
Footnote
Le Havre
Point Blank

Best Documentary: Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory

Top 5 Documentaries
Born to Be Wild
Buck
George Harrison: Living in the Material World
Project Nim
Senna

Best Animated Feature: Rango

Best Ensemble Cast: The Help

Best Debut Director: J.C. Chandor, Margin Call

Spotlight Award: Michael Fassbender, A Dangerous Method, Jane Eyre, Shame, X-Men: First Class

NBR Freedom of Expression: Crime After Crime and Pariah

Special Achievement in Filmmaking: The Harry Potter franchise

Top 10 Independent Films
50/50
Another Earth
Beginners
A Better Life
Cedar Rapids
Margin Call
Shame
Take Shelter
We Need to Talk About Kevin
Win Win

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