The National Board of Review winners almost never win Oscars. That’s the curse of the NBR, which I’ve written about extensively.

So imagine how the producers of “Green Book” and the stars of “A Star is Born” felt yesterday. They won the NBR’s main awards. In the case of the latter it was Bradley Cooper for Best Director and Lady Gaga as Best Actress, Viggo Mortensen for Best Actor. “A Star is Born” actor Sam Elliot also won Best Supporting Actor.

This checks off the list for NBR’s Annie Schulhof, who has given Warner Bros. most of her awards over the last decade. “A Star is Born” is Warners. “Green Book” is Universal, so Shotgun Annie has guaranteed two big studios will pay for most of her tables at the early January shindig thrown by NBR. Annie really doubled down on Warner Bros. by giving “Crazy Rich Asians” Best Ensemble.

Tomorrow, these awards start getting real with the New York Film Critics Circle. I think we’ll see “Roma” there, and some more interesting stuff since the NYFCC has no backs to pat or pockets to be in. Schulhof also got a few in for A24 including “First Reformed,” “Lean on Pete,” “Eighth Grade,” and “Mid 90s.” Schulhof ignored SOny Pictures Classics and Fox Searchlight because they wouldn’t play her game.

But that curse– what about the curse? Last year “The Post” won Best Feature here. They have not chosen an Oscar Best Picture since 2008 with “Slumdog Millionaire.” I fear now for “Green Book.” What will this do to its chances?

Best Film: GREEN BOOK

Best Director: Bradley Cooper, A STAR IS BORN

Best Actor: Viggo Mortensen, GREEN BOOK

Best Actress: Lady Gaga, A STAR IS BORN

Best Supporting Actor: Sam Elliott, A STAR IS BORN

Best Supporting Actress: Regina King, IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK

Best Original Screenplay: Paul Schrader, FIRST REFORMED

Best Adapted Screenplay: Barry Jenkins, IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK

Best Animated Feature: INCREDIBLES 2

Breakthrough Performance: Thomasin McKenzie, LEAVE NO TRACE

Best Directorial Debut: Bo Burnham, EIGHTH GRADE

Best Foreign Language Film: COLD WAR

Best Documentary: RBG

Best Ensemble: CRAZY RICH ASIANS

William K. Everson Film History Award: THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND and THEY’LL LOVE ME WHEN I’M DEAD

NBR Freedom of Expression Award: 22 JULY

NBR Freedom of Expression Award: ON HER SHOULDERS

Top Films (in alphabetical order)

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

Black Panther

Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Eighth Grade

First Reformed

If Beale Street Could Talk

Mary Poppins Returns

A Quiet Place

Roma

A Star Is Born

Top 5 Foreign Language Films (in alphabetical order)

Burning

Custody

The Guilty

Happy as Lazzaro

Shoplifters

Top 5 Documentaries (in alphabetical order)

Crime + Punishment

Free Solo

Minding the Gap

Three Identical Strangers

Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

Top 10 Independent Films (in alphabetical order)

The Death of Stalin

Lean on Pete

Leave No Trace

Mid90s

The Old Man & the Gun

The Rider

Searching

Sorry to Bother You

We the Animals

You Were Never Really Here

While we wait for Annie Schulhof and her secret committees to announce the National Board of Review winners (George Clooney, Best Husband, etc.) here’s a look at this 501 c3’s finances.

Salaries are up by $50K, revenue is down. Salaries were up $26,000 to $283.469.

Revenue less expenses was MINUS $114,847. Last year that number was MINUS $48,862.

The National Board of Review is fan based membership group of non critics– just peeps who like movies. They pay annual membership fees and a separate ticket fee to a fancy dinner where they can meet the stars. Schulhof often disregards the voters and selects winners based on what the studios will spend on tables at the dinner. She wants stars. Black actors are relegated to “breakthrough” performance.

The REAL awards groups in each city– NY Film Critics, Boston, LA, Chicago– there are no salaries. There is no need for a Form 990. NBR is a little business/fiefdom generally laughed at by the actors and publicists. But they love the publicity!

Oscar season has begun in earnest.

At Cipriani Wall Street, the good betting was on Glenn Close winning Best Actress in the Gotham Awards for “The Wife.” She lost, to Toni Colette, who wasn’t even there. That was one of many headscratchers. Close took it all in good stride, but I say she’ll get the last laugh come the Oscars.

Ethan Hawke won Best Actor for “First Reformed,” and Paul Schrader won Best Screenplay. Schrader also directed “First Reformed.” Let’s hope this helps him.

Best Feature went to “The Rider,” a contemporary Western made with untrained and unknown actors, shown in Cannes in 2017.  Huh? The betting again, was on half a dozen other films from “First Reformed” to “Eighth Grade” to “The Favourite,” which picked up the ensemble prize. But “The Rider” won and I suspect that’s the last we’ll see of it, so congrats to the people who made it.

Hawke, and Willem Dafoe– who received a rousing tribute from Laurie Anderson– delivered the best speeches of the night. One thing of note was that great filmmakers like William Goldman and Bernardo Bertolucci were each given a shout out to note their recent respective passings. But the applause for them was muted. Do people not know who they are? Is it generational? What is going on out there?

Today– Tuesday– we get the National Board of Review winners. This is always nuts. It’s a group of fans who pay heavy fees to see films and then go to a swanky dinner. Last year the big winner was “The Post.” It’s all about getting stars into the ballroom, My hunch is they go hard for “A Star is Born” to get Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper. “Green Book’ isn’t their type of film ordinarily. (I’m not sure if there are more than 2 black members of the NBR.)

On Wednesday we get the far more professional New York Film Critics Circle winners. So hold on.

PS Nice to see actors like Alessandro Nivola and Patricia Clarkson giving out top prizes last night. Also, Regina Hall is just swell. So is Kathryn Hahn. And goodbye to Joana Vicente, who’s leaving the Gothams for the Toronto Film Festival. She will be sorely missed.

BEST FEATURE

The Rider

Chloé Zhao, director; Bert Hamelinck, Sacha Ben Harroche, Mollye Asher, Chloé Zhao, producers (Sony Pictures Classics)

AUDIENCE AWARD

Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

Morgan Neville, director; Morgan Neville, Caryn Capotosto, Nicholas Ma, producers (Focus Features)

BEST DOCUMENTARY

Hale County This Morning, This Evening

RaMell Ross, director; RaMell Ross, Joslyn Barnes, Su Kim, producers (The Cinema Guild)

BINGHAM RAY BREAKTHROUGH DIRECTOR AWARD

Bo Burnham for Eighth Grade (A24)

BEST SCREENPLAY

First Reformed, Paul Schrader (A24)

BEST ACTOR

Ethan Hawke in First Reformed (A24)

BEST ACTRESS*

Toni Collette in Hereditary (A24)

BREAKTHROUGH ACTOR

Elsie Fisher in Eighth Grade (A24)

BREAKTHROUGH SERIES – LONG FORM

Killing Eve, Sally Woodward Gentle, Lee Morris, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, executive producers (BBC America)

BREAKTHROUGH SERIES – SHORT FORM

195 Lewis, Chanelle Aponte Pearson and Rae Leone Allen, creators

Bernardo Bertolucci, famed director of “The Last Emperor,” and “Last Tango in Paris.” among others, is dead in Paris at age 77.

He’d been ill for years and was confined to a wheelchair. But I was lucky to meet him in Cannes a few years ago, and it was very exciting. As controversial as “Last Tango” was — and is even today — “The Last Emperor” is one of the greatest movies of all time. It won 9 Oscars in 1988 and is a zenith in movie making. If you’ve never seen it, you must.

Bertolucci also made some other wonderful films including “Stealing Beauty,” “The Sheltering Sky,” and “The Non Conformist.” His movies were lavish, sumptuous, and brimming with excess. He also collaborated on the greatest “spaghetti Western” of all time, Sergio Leone’s “Once Upon a Time in the West.”

Bertolucci’s death comes on the heels of another great director’s demise. Nicholas Roeg died last week, director “The Man Who Fell to Earth,” “Don’t Look Now,” and “Performance,” among others. He as 90.

I could give you a list of movies people haven’t warmed to, and it’s long. But let’s start with the good news.

“Creed II” made a lot more money in its opening than the original. The sequel took in $55 million and set a record for live action films released over Thanksgiving. Who gets rich? Sylvester Stallone and producer Irwin Winkler. Whose star is now so pumped up? Michael B. Jordan, who started out on “All My Children,” made his name in “Fruitvale Station,” made the first “Creed” a hit, and then had box office bonanza in “Black Panther.” Bravo!

The only other movie audiences still want to see is “Bohemian Rhapsody.” They’re up over $150 million and had the smallest week to week drop of any film. Rami Malek really has to get an Oscar nomination.

“Green Book,” the one movie that poses a threat to “A Star is Born” for major Oscars, finally got into the conversation this weekend. They are comfortably on their way, making over $5 million in somewhat limited release. I’ve heard of audiences clapping at the end in real showings, and great word of mouth. And so it should be.

The movie that might have resurrected the reputation of Colorado Senator Gary Hart is a bust at the box office. Launched on Election Day– November 6– “The Front Runner” is pretty much in last place at the box office. Even with Hugh Jackman’s charismatic performance, the movie has made just $700,000 after 19 days in release.

UPDATE: The total as of Sunday night will be just over $1 million.

Senator Gary Hart of Colorado was once the great hope of the Democratic party. He was hip and young and on the right side of causes. Hollywood loved him. And in the Reagan era Gary Hart was top of the list of Democratic hopefuls.

But Hart’s political life came to an end in late 1987 when an affair with Donna Rice became public. The affair became public after Hart was photographed on a yacht called the Monkey Business. She was sitting on his lap. Endless rumors about his womanizing became true, and Hart would not be part of the 1988 election.

It would be four more years before Bill Clinton would become the Democratic champion. And even though philandering was on his resume, Hart had already blazed that trail.

“The Front Runner” is directed by Jason Reitman, whose credits include the excellent films “Up in the Air” and “Juno.” There’s nothing wrong with this film. But Sony Pictures cannot make people come see a movie in which we know the ending, and it still can’t be explained in a logical way. How could Hart have compartmentalized his life in such a way that personal and public wouldn’t collide? And why did his wife, Lee, stay with him?

After all the these years, and having seen “The Front Runner,” we still don’t know the answer. Sony increased the number of theaters this weekend, hoping that Jackman– best known as Wolverine and now a friend of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner– would bring in fans. But Gary Hart is now X Man. He’s just an ex-politician who flamed out. Whatever the movie cost– $30 million?– is pretty much lost.