Now that awards season is over, let’s take a look back at the kooky National Board of Review.
They got just about everything wrong this winter regarding the eventual Oscar winners. This might be useful for next time around.
The NBR — run by one woman, Annie Schulhof — would have been escorted out of the casino if she’d placed her bets this way.
Schulhof gave Best Picture to “Wicked.” The Oscar winner was “Anora.”
Best Actor and Actress went to Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman, respectively of “Queer” and “Babygirl.”
The Oscars went to Adrien Brody and Mikey Madison.
Schulhof got one acting prize right– Kieran Culkin also won the supporting actor Oscar for “A Real Pain.” But in supporting actress, she chose Ellen Fanning for “A Complete Unknown.” The Oscar went to Zoe Saldana for “Emilia Perez.”
The NBR’s Best Director was Jon M. Chu for “Wicked.” Chu wasn’t nominated for an Oscar.
Her screenplay awards went to “Hard Truths” and “Sing Sing.”
The Oscars — “Anora” and “Conclave.”
“I’m Still Here” won the Oscar for Best International Film. Schulhof went with “The Seed of the Sacred Fig.”
Schulhof’s top 10 films overlapped with just four of the Oscar top 10.
The “Wicked” awards were to get Universal to pay for tables at their annual gala. The “Queer” and “Babygirl” awards could be attributed to having an executive from A24 on the NBR board.
Even with the lean in for A24, Schulhof made a big mistake. She totally ignored “The Brutalist,” and gave it not a mention. So Brody, who won many Best Actor awards elsewhere, and director Brady Corbet, got nada from them. It could be that in the horse trading, Schulhof took Kidman and Craig, and sacrificed Brody and his movie.
She also got documentary wrong, going with “:”Sugarcane.” She totally ignored “No Other Land.” Not even chosen for top docs.
