USA: NATIONAL BOARD OF REVIEW OF MOTION PICTURES AWARD "QUILLS " AS BEST FILM OF THE YEAR

Record ID: 390814

  • Title: USA: NATIONAL BOARD OF REVIEW OF MOTION PICTURES AWARD "QUILLS " AS BEST FILM OF THE YEAR
  • Date: 16th January 2001
  • Summary: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, USA (JANUARY 16, 2001) (REUTERS) SMV, HILLARY SWANK POSING FOR PRESS WIDE OF PRESS SMV, ELLEN BURSTYN SCU MICHELLE RODRIGUEZ TALKING TO PRESS SMV, FILM DIRECTOR STEVEN SODERBERGH AND JULIA ROBERTS TALKING TO MEDIA
  • Embargoed: 31st January 2001 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, USA
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAAKYUEADEFZ27RBE9XD74XJM7B
  • Story Text: The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures handed out its awards for excellence in film achievement on Tuesday (January 16) in New York. Among those in attendance to receive their awards were Julia Roberts, Geoffrey Rush and Javier Bardem.
    With the Oscar nominations just around the corner,all eyes were on The National Board of Review and the awards handed out at New York's Tavern on the Green on Tuesday (January 16). Mega-star, Julia Roberts was on hand to accept the award for Best Actress for her title role in "Erin Brokavich."
    Accompanied by the director of "Erin Brockovich" and the recent hit, "Traffic," Steven Soderbergh, Roberts took time out to praise him as a director, "He's just really smart and he knows, he appreciates the fun of making a movie and the intrigue of making a movie and he's is really frank and forthright and makes it easy and creates a happy environment where you just want to prevail."
    The National Board of Review awarded, "Quills"
    as the Best Picture of the year. The star of "Quills, Geoffrey Rush was invited to award the producers and the director of the film, Philip Kaufman with the award. He believes that "Quills" success belongs to the script and the characters "It is a beautifully crafted script, its dialogue driven and character based, I mean Phil kept saying you know we've got to create characters that the audience want to spend a couple of hours with and get excited by their drives and their hopes and their failures and their inadequacies and their joys and I think the nature of the screenplay allows for that possibly to happen."
    The Best Actor Award went to Spaniard, Javier Bardem for his role in the runaway hit, "Before Night Falls." For Bardem it is his first film where he was required to speak in English.
    Best Foreign Film went to, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." The film features amazing action martial arts sequences and deep Eastern philosophy. The producer of the film, James Schamus is amazed by the film's success in the United States. "I think that people are tapping in not just to the fact that it's a fantasy and martial arts and a romance but I think that they are tapping in to something generally different about it which is the Eastern philosophy you know I think there is something really new for Americans there." The movie is already the second highest grossing foreign film in U.S. history and well on its way to being number one.
    Other awrds handed out included a Career Achievement award to Ellen Burstyn and an award for Breakthrough Performance to Michelle Rodriguez for her role in, "Girlfight." Best Director went to Steven Soderbergh for "Erin Brokovich" and "Traffic."
    The National Board of Review was founded in 1909 in New York city just 13 years after the invention of cinema as an anticensorship group. In 1929 the Board chose the top ten English language films and top 5 foreign films of the year. The awards have expanded over the years to various categories and lifetime achievement awards. It is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the support of excellence and free expression in motion picture arts.
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