Mirren, Hudson, Wallach Among Winners of NBR Awards

The recipients of the National Board of Review Awards, which will be presented on January 9th in New York, have been announced.

Helen Mirren, Jennifer Hudson and Eli Wallach are among the winners of this year's awards, which honor achievement in film.  Mirren won Best Actress for her work in the title role of The Queen, Hudson won Breakthrough Performance - Female for her turn as Effie Melody White in the Dreamgirls film, and theatre and film veteran Wallach was selected to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Best Actor was awarded to Forrest Whitaker for his work in The Last King of Scotland, while Ryan Gosling received Breakthrough Performance - Male for Half Nelson.  Clint Eastwood's Letters from Iwo Jima was selected as Best Film and Pedro Almodovar's Volver received Best Foreign Film.

"NBR members annually view and rate over 300 films: theatrical and made for cable, independent and major studio, documentary and foreign language. The screening membership comprises film professionals, educators, students, and historians. Frequently, in-depth discussions with filmmakers, directors, actors, producers, or screenwriters follow screenings. At year's end, members receive a list of all films screened, along with final ballots, which are tallied by the awards committee in order to determine annual honorees," states the NBR website.

The complete list of winners follows:

Best Film
Letters From Iwo Jima

Best Foreign Film
Volver

Best Actor
Forest Whitaker, The Last King Of Scotland

Best Actress
Helen Mirren, The Queen

Best Supporting Actor
Djimon Hounsou, Blood Diamond

Best Supporting Actress
Catherine O'Hara, For Your Consideration

Best Acting By An Ensemble
The Departed

Breakthrough Performance - Male
Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson

Breakthrough Performance - Female
(2) Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls, and Rinko Kikuchi, Babel

Best Director
Martin Scorsese, The Departed

Best Directorial Debut
Jason Reitman, Thank You For Smoking

Best Adapted Screenplay
Ron Nyswaner, The Painted Veil

Best Original Screenplay
Zach Helm, Stranger Than Fiction

Best Documentary
An Inconvenient Truth

Best Animated Feature
Cars