...aaaaaand it starts again.

The National Board of Review tossed out their annual film awards this afternoon. Almost always the first to do so, the NBR awards aren't typically the most respectable of the end-of-the-year critics' prizes (remember when they named Quills the best picture of 2000?), but since they've been announced, it means that award season is in full swing. Expect plenty of other Film Circles to reveal their winners throughout the month. Awards below:

Best Picture: Up in the Air, d. Jason Reitman
Best Director: Clint Eastwood - Invictus
Best Actor: (tie) Morgan Freeman - Invictus; George Clooney - Up in the Air
Best Actress: Carey Mulligan - An Education
Best Supporting Actor: Woody Harrelson - The Messenger
Best Supporting Actress: Anna Kendrick - Up in the Air
Best Foreign Film: A Prophet [Un prophète], d. Jacques Audiard, France
Best Documentary: The Cove, d. Louie Psihoyos
Best Animated Feature: Up, d. Pete Docter, Bob Peterson
Best Ensemble Cast: It's Complicated
Breakthrough Performance by an Actor: Jeremy Renner - The Hurt Locker
Breakthrough Performance by an Actress: Gabourey Sidibe - Precious
Spotlight Award for Best Directorial Debut: (tie) Duncan Jones - Moon; Oren Moverman - The Messenger; Marc Webb - (500) Days of Summer
Special Filmmaking Achievement Award: Wes Anderson - The Fantastic Mr. Fox
William K. Everson Film History Award: Jean Picker Firstenberg
NBR Freedom of Expression: (tie) Burma VJ; Invictus; The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellseberg and the Pentagon Papers

Top 10 Films (After Up in the Air), alphabetically

(500) Days of Summer, d. Mark Webb
An Education, d. Lone Scherfig
The Hurt Locker, d. Kathryn Bigelow
Inglourious Basterds, d. Quentin Tarantino
Invictus, d. Clint Eastwood
The Messenger, d. Oren Moverman
A Serious Man, d. Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Star Trek, d. J.J. Abrams
Up, d. Pete Docter, Bob Peterson
Where the Wild Things Are, d. Spike Jonze


Top 10 "Independent" Films, alphabetically

Amreeka, d. Cherien Dabis
District 9, d. Neill Blomkamp
Goodbye Solo, d. Ramin Bahrani
Humpday, d. Lynn Shelton
In the Loop, d. Armando Iannucci
Julia, d. Erick Zonca
Me and Orson Welles, d. Richard Linklater
Moon, d. Duncan Jones
Sugar, d. Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck
Two Lovers, d. James Gray


Top 5 Foreign Films (After A Prophet), alphabetically

The Maid [La nana], d. Sebastián Silva, Chile/Mexico
Revanche, d. Götz Spielmann, Austria
Song of Sparrows, d. Majid Majidi, Iran
Three Monkeys [Üç maymun], d. Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Turkey
The White Ribbon [Das weiße Band], d. Michael Haneke, Austria/Germany/France/Italy


Top 5 Docmentary Films (After The Cove), alphabetically

Burma VJ, d. Anders Østergaard
Crude, d. Joe Berlinger
Food, Inc., d. Robert Kenner
Good Hair, d. Jeff Stilson
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, d. Judith Ehrlich, Rick Goldsmith