Earlier today, The National Board of Review (NBR), a nonprofit organization, announced its top film awards for 2006.  For nearly a century, NBR has been supporting film as entertainment and art, and is still the first critical body to declare its annual awards.  The winners, selected from 270 of this year’s films, are as follows:

Best Film: Letters From Iwo Jima

Best Director: Martin Scorsese, The Departed

Best Actor: Forest Whitaker, The Last King Of Scotland

Best Actress: Helen Mirren, The Queen

Best Supporting Actor: Djimon Hounsou, Blood Diamond

Best Supporting Actress: Catherine O’Hara, For Your Consideration

Best Foreign Film: Volver

Best Documentary: An Inconvenient Truth

Best Animated Feature: Cars

Best Ensemble Cast: The Departed

Breakthrough Performance – Male: Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson

Breakthrough Performance – Female: Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls and Rinko Kikuchi, Babel

Best Directorial Debut: Jason Reitman, Thank You For Smoking

Best Original Screenplay: Zach Helm, Stranger Than Fiction

Best Adapted Screenplay: Ron Nyswaner, The Painted Veil

These awards often foreshadow similar results come Oscar night, so keep an eye on these early predictions.  For a full list of winners, visit the NBR website.