"No Country" named best film; awards season opens

KEY WINNERS

This year, Tim Burton took the best director award for musical "Sweeney Todd," featuring his wife Helena Bonham Carter and "Pirates of the Caribbean" star Johnny Depp.

Amy Ryan won the best supporting actress award for Ben Affleck's dark kidnapping saga, "Gone Baby Gone," which secured the best directorial debut award for Affleck.

His brother Casey Affleck was named best supporting actor playing the man who murders outlaw Jesse James in "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford."

The NBR's list of top 10 films includes "Assassination of Jesse James," "Atonement," Sean Penn's "Into the Wild" and "The Kite Runner," as well as action film "The Bourne Ultimatum."

Notably absent was director Ridley Scott's crime epic "American Gangster" with Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe.

Julian Schnabel's "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" won the best foreign film award. "Body of War" won best documentary and "Ratatouille" was named best animated feature.

Emile Hirsch won an award for breakthrough performance by an actor for "Into the Wild," and Ellen Page took the breakthrough performance by an actress award for "Juno."

"Juno" and "Lars and the Real Girl" tied for best original screenplay.

The board also presented a career achievement award to Michael Douglas, an Oscar winner for best actor for "Wall Street" in 1988. He and Saul Zaentz shared a best picture Oscar for producing "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" in 1976.