The first major award of Oscar season has sent ripples of surprise across Hollywood. The National Board of Review, a collection of cultural elite, acdemics, and wealthy supporters of moving imagery, have announced its yearly award winners. The NBR awards always lean towards the arthouse crowd, and are rarely indicators of the Golden Globes and the Oscars, but last year they were the first to award No Country for Old Men for its brilliance, and we all know how well that film was received.

This year the presence of Danny Boyle’s Indian-based drama Slumdog Millionaire probably surprised many by being named as best film of 2008. The premise (a young Indian boy wins the local version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire) sounds pithy at first, but the consistently glowing reviews suggest this film has more heart than a hundred blockbusters. Could this Slumdog go all the way to the Oscars? We can only wait and see.

Other awards included David Fincher for Best Director, for his fairy-tale The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Clint Eastwood won for best actor in Gran Torino, and Anne Hathaway won Best Actress for Rachel Getting Married. For a complete list, go here.