The National Board of Review, a cadre of film historians, academics and artists, on Thursday became the first organization to announce winners -- nominees and weeks of campaigning aren't their style -- for the best cinematic achievements of 2010.

Their choice? David Fincher's The Social Network, a contentious dramatization how Facebook was created. In addition to best feature, The Social Network picked up NBR prizes for best director (Fincher), adapted screenplay (Aaron Sorkin, working from Ben Mezrich's book The Accidental Billionaires) and actor Jesse Eisenberg (left), playing Facebook mogul Mark Zuckerberg.

Christian Bale was named best supporting actor for The Fighter (opening in Tampa Bay theaters Dec. 17), while Lesley Manville won best actress, playing a working class wife in Mike Leigh's Another Year (arriving locally in January, 2011). Jacki Weaver's turn as matriarch of an crime family in Animal Kingdom (due on DVD Jan. 18) earned the best supporting actress award.

Other NBR winners: Waiting for Superman (documentary); animated feature (Toy Story 3); Of Gods and Men (foreign film); The Town (ensemble cast); Buried (original screenplay); the documentary Restrepo (best directorial debut); Winter's Bone star Jennifer Lawence (breakthrough performance); and special citations for filmmaker Sofia Coppola (Somewhere) and critic Leonard Maltin.

The board announced an alphabetical list of the top 11 movies of 2010: Another Year, The Fighter, Hereafter, Inception, The King’s Speech, Shutter Island, The Social Network, The Town, Toy Story 3, True Grit and Winter’s Bone.

The choices for best documentaries: A Film Unfinished, Inside Job, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, Restrepo, The Tillman Story, Waiting For “Superman”

The year's top-10 independent films, as chosen by the NBR: Animal Kingdom, Buried, Fish Tank, The Ghost Writer, Greenberg, Let Me In, Monsters, Please Give, Somewhere,  Youth in Revolt.

And the group's top-6 foreign language films: I Am Love, Incendies Life, Above All, Of Gods And Men, Soul Kitchen
and White Material.