2009 National Board of Review Award Winners

This morning, the National Board of Review kept its tradition of being the first major precursor awards to throw their hat into the Oscar pool by announcing their winners for 2009. The Best Film honor went to Jason Reitman’s flick Up In The Air, followed by Woody Harrelson‘s surprising win for Best Supporting Actor in The Messenger with an obviously absent Precious and Nine being left off the top ten list.

The National Board of review is a notoriously unreliable Oscar predictor by coming out so early, but it does give us a good look at the films and performances that are expected to compete.

Click Below to See the Full List of Winners:

Best Film:
Up In The Air

Ten Best Films
An Education
(500) Days of Summer
The Hurt Locker
Inglorious Basterds
Invictus
The Messenger
A Serious Man
Star Trek
Up
Where the Wild Things Are

Best Director:
Clint Eastwood for Invictus

Best Actor:
Morgan Freeman in Invictus and George Clooney in Up In The Air (tie)

Best Actress:
Carey Mulligan in An Education

Best Supporting Actor:
Woody Harrelson in The Messenger

Best Supporting Actress:
Anna Kendrick in Up In The Air

Best Foreign Film:
A Prophet

Best Documentary:
The Cove

Best Animated Feature:
Up

Best Ensemble Cast:
It’s Complicated

Breakthrough Performance by an Actor:
Jeremy Renner in The Hurt Locker

Breakthrough Performance by an Actress:
Gabourey Sidibe in Precious

Spotlight Award for Best Directorial Debut:
Duncan Jones, Moon, Oren Moverman, The Messenger, Marc Webb, (500) Days of Summer (three-way tie)

Best Original Screenplay:
A Serious Man by Joel & Ethan Coen

Best Adapted Screenplay:
Up In The Air by Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner

Special Filmmaking Achievement Award:
Wes Anderson for The Fantastic Mr. Fox

William K. Everson Film History Award:
Jean Picker Firstenberg

NBR Freedom of Expression:
Burma VJ: Reporting From a Closed Country
Invictus
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers

Five Best Foreign-Language Films:
(in alphabetical order)
The Maid
Revanche
Song of Sparrows
Three Monkeys
The White Ribbon

Five Best Documentaries:
(in alphabetical order)
Burma VJ: Reporting From a Closed Country
Crude
Food, Inc.
Good Hair
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers

Top Ten Independent Films:
(in alphabetical order)
Amreeka
District 9
Goodbye Solo
Humpday
In The Loop
Julia
Me and Orson Welles
Moon
Sugar
Two Lovers

What do you think of the winners picked for this year? Do you think a lot of them have Oscar potential?