Julianne Moore and her new film The Hours have both been tipped for Oscars after the National Board of Review named them best actress and best film of the year.
Directed by Billy Elliot’s Stephen Daldry, the film follows the stories of three women linked together by Virginia Woolf’s book Mrs Dalloway. Also starring Nicole Kidman and Meryl Streep, it is inspired by Michael Cunningham’s Pulitzer-winning novel of the same name.
Moore won the best actress award for her performance in another film, however. In Far From Heaven, she plays a housewife who embarks on an affair with the gardener after discovering her husband is gay. George Clooney was also honoured in the Special Filmmaking Achievement category for his directorial debut Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind.
Campbell Scott was a surprise winner when he took the best actor prize for his portrayal of a shallow philanderer in Roger Doger. Should he carry on to win an Oscar for the role, he would follow in the footsteps of his father, George C Scott, who won an Academy Award in 1970 for Patton. It is unlikely he would use the opportunity to repeat his father’s example by refusing the statuette, however. George, along with Marlon Brando and screenwriter Dudley Nichols, are the only people ever to have declined an Oscar gong.
The Board, which is made up of actors, movie workers, writers and teachers will hold its official prize-giving ceremony on January 14.
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
