Oscar Bloggers Get Out Their Belts for NBR Awards

Last week it was the Gotham Awards that marked the unofficial start of awards season, but yesterday, the National Board of Review awards announcement really seemed to send Oscar prognosticators into pre-orgasmic spasms of commentary. That is, 'pre-orgasmic' if you're Ike Turner:

David Carr: "Going Deep in a Shallow Sort of Way" (Headline)

Scott Feinberg: "Don't get too excited or disappointed based on how the films and talent you favor went over with the National Board of Review, which announced its awards today. They generally don't correlate with the Oscars at all."

David Poland: "This is one of those annual moments of, 'We don’t have any respect for this organization at all… but because it is a landmark, we are going to actually pay attention and treat it like it matters, even if we hate ourselves in the morning, tomorrow morning, and for months to come.' "

Jeffrey Wells: "Djimon Honsou [sic] won Best Supporting Actor for his acting in Blood Diamond...a joke!"

Roger Friedman: "Hilarious and sad. That’s what The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures has become in the last several years. The hilarious part is because the movie studios hate it but keep it going so they have an award to tout in newspaper ads. The sad part is that the members don’t know what they’re doing, and no one respects them."

Anne Thompson: "This group has never been truly predictive of Oscar performance. Press attention helps the movies that are moving inexorably forward and doesn't help the ones that aren't happening, basically."

Three thousand miles away from NBR's New York HQ, however, Tom O'Neil's got its back: "They seem like serious, solid folk, but they're hated, mocked and ridiculed by film critics who are jealous of NBR's clout, which comes from NBR being the first awards group out of the gate with its winners' list every year." Hey, someone's gotta love 'em.

Posted at December 7, 2006 12:57 PM