"No Country" named best film; awards season opens

Grim crime thriller "No Country for Old Men," from brothers Joel and Ethan Coen, was named best film of 2007 by the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures on Wednesday in the first major award of Oscar season.

George Clooney won best actor for his role as a conflicted attorney in "Michael Clayton" and Julie Christie earned the best actress honor playing an Alzheimer's disease sufferer who puts herself into a nursing facility in "Away From Her."

"No Country," which also won awards for best adapted screenplay and best ensemble cast, is the 12th in a series of odd, ironic feature films written, produced and directed by the Coen Bros, including "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" and "Fargo."

The often bloody film stars Josh Brolin as a hunter who absconds with millions of dollars he found after a drug deal gone awry. Javier Bardem plays an assassin on his trail and Tommy Lee Jones is the sheriff chasing both.

NBR members include educators, historians and film industry professionals, and its awards can portend winners at the Oscars, the world's top movie honors presented in February by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Still, NBR honors are no guarantee of Oscar success. The board sometimes disdains box office blockbusters in favor of more esoteric choices, and two years ago delayed announcing winners after garnering criticism for omitting directors of critically acclaimed films like "Capote" and "Walk the Line."