Los Angeles is readying itself for the Golden Globes on Monday night, but here in New York the award-show season has already begun. On Tuesday, Penélope Cruz, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Parker Posey were all on hand to honor Pedro Almodóvar, Jennifer Hudson, and Catherine O'Hara, along with a quartet of legendary directors— Clint Eastwood, Steven Spielberg, Oliver Stone, and Martin Scorsese—at the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures annual gala.

"This is such a whirlwind," said a Giambattista Valli-clad Parker after inching her way past the long line of photographers outside Cipriani 42nd Street. Once the evening got under way, though—two hours after its scheduled starting time—it proved to be a remarkably relaxed affair. Helen Mirren kicked off her Louboutins to accept Best Actress for The Queen. An Inconvenient Truth's Davis Guggenheim told Tipper Gore—and the rest of the audience—that he remembered being angry at her for censoring music, but that he now understood because he has three kids. And Martin Scorsese went on a delightfully lengthy diatribe about how, back in the seventies, he was once detained because police thought he was the so-called Hillside Strangler.

Then came the effervescent Almodóvar: "It’s a lot of flying back and forth, but it’s worth it. This is the best time of the year!"