National Board Of Review Of Motion Pictures

Guillermo Del Toro's gothic fairy tale, "Pan's Labyrinth," was named best picture of 2006 on Saturday by the National Society of Film Critics. The Mexican film faced fierce competition from two other foreign-language films -- the Romanian drama "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu" and Clint Eastwood's World War II drama "Letters From Iwo Jima" -- with only a few votes separating the three. Because "Labyrinth" is a foreign-language film, no separate award was given in that category.

"There Will be Blood," Paul Thomas Anderson's epic tale of oil, power and greed, was named best picture of 2007 on Saturday by the National Society of Film Critics. The complex and ambitious adaptation of Upton Sinclair's "Oil!" also won best director for Anderson, best actor for Daniel Day-Lewis and best cinematography for Robert Elswit. Both the drama and Day-Lewis have been gaining momentum this awards season. Last month, the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn.

"About Schmidt," Alexander Payne's comedy-drama about a recently widowed retiree, was voted best picture of 2002 on Saturday by the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn. "Far From Heaven," Todd Haynes' paean to '50s movie melodramas, was the runner-up. "About Schmidt" won three awards Saturday. Besides best film, the New Line release picked up best-actor honors for Jack Nicholson and screenplay honors for director Payne and co-writer Jim Taylor.

Let the movie awards season begin. The race for the Oscars kicked off Wednesday with "Moulin Rouge," Baz Luhrmann's expressionistic and audacious musical drama, being named best film of 2001 by the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures. "It's fabulous news," said Luhrmann, reached in London where he is casting the opera version of "Moulin Rouge." "I think there has been a building acceptance of 'Moulin Rouge' over the past three months....

IT'S no secret that Oscar campaigns are a lot like political campaigns. They're run by wily consultants, fueled by endless flesh-pressing (the Hollywood meet 'n' greet assuming the role of a campaign appearance), tirelessly critiqued by bloggers and financed by huge outlays of advertising dollars. If the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures award winners are the equivalent of the Iowa caucuses, then the New York and Los Angeles Film Critics awards represent the New Hampshire primary.

Not only is Martin Scorsese one of the most influential filmmakers of the last four decades, the iconoclastic director consistently delivers superior audio commentaries that offer rare insight into his life and the directing process. Unfortunately, there is no Scorsese audio commentary on the two-disc set of "The Departed" (Warner, $35).

Clint Eastwood's World War II drama "Letters From Iwo Jima" -- a recollection of the famed 1945 battle told from the Japanese perspective -- was named best movie of the year Sunday by the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn. It's the second such honor for the film in less than a week -- the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures also named "Iwo Jima" the top film of the year -- and the decisive wins make it an early front-runner for the Academy Awards.

MOVIES And They're Off!: The pre-Oscar awards season kicked off in earnest Tuesday with the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures selecting Ian McKellen's "Gods and Monsters" as best film and McKellen as the year's best actor.