Film News: ‘Hugo’ Named Top Film of 2011 By National Board of Review

Submitted by TimBMartens on December 1, 2011 - 3:20pm

CHICAGO – The National Board of Review made its announcements for the winners of their favorite films and performances of 2011 earlier today, and the winner came as a bit of a surprise. After “The Artist” won the New York Film Critics Circle pick for top film on Monday and the film also tied “Take Shelter” for the most nominations for this year’s Spirit Awards, the National Board of Review named Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo” as its top film of 2011.

The win for Best Film also included a win for Martin Scorsese as Best Director for the film. Usually a gangster and violent subject filmmaker, Scorsese’s “Hugo” is an adaptation of a children’s book about a young orphan boy who lives in the walls of a train station that gets wrapped up in a great mystery.

As far as acting performances go, the National Board of Review presented the top acting awards to George Clooney for his performance in “The Descendants” and Tilda Swinton for her role in “We Need to Talk About Kevin.” The win for Clooney was one of three wins for “The Descendants.” Shailene Woodley took home Best Supporting Actress and Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, and Jim Rash received Best Adapted Screenplay for the film. Will Reiser won the other writing award, Best Original Screenplay, for “50/50.”

One of the other interesting storylines was Felicity Jones winning a Breakthrough Performance Award for her role in “Like Crazy.” The win comes only days after she won the Breakthrough Actor Award at the Gotham Awards. The wins are significant due to the number of Breakthrough nominees this year, most notably Elizabeth Olsen in “Martha Marcy May Marlene.”