The National Board of Review—one of the awards season’s inaugural voting bodies—has announced its Top 10 Films of the Year list, along with other superlatives. If you’re looking for a correlation between NBR and the Oscars, well you’re not gonna find it. The winner of Best Film from the National Board of Review hasn’t won the Best Picture Oscar since 2008’s Slumdog Millionaire, and as a voting body their tastes can be a bit left of center. Last year The Post took the top prize, while 2014’s top film—A Most Violent Year—remains one of the more puzzling awards decisions in recent memory.
But I digress. This year, the National Board of Review named Green Book the best film of 2018. The “inspired by a true story” drama chronicles the budding friendship between two opposites in the Deep South in the 1960s—a crass, working-class, racist driver played by Viggo Mortensen and a refined, secluded world-class pianist played by Mahershala Ali. The film won the Audience Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, but it underwhelmed at the box office last weekend and has received flack for its problematic nature. But it’ll probably land a number of Oscar nominations.
Elsewhere, NBR named Bradley Cooper as Best Director for his stellar work on A Star Is Born, but they went with Green Book once again in Best Actor with Viggo Mortensen taking the prize. Lady Gaga was named Best Actress for her terrific work in A Star Is Born, while the supporting trophies went to Sam Elliott for A Star Is Born and Regina King in If Beale Street Could Talk, both of whom are serious Oscar contenders and certainly deserving of these honors.
The NBR's Top 10 list this year is a pretty solid crop of films, owing to the strength of the year overall. Check out the NBR’s full list of winners below.
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
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
NBR Freedom of Expression Award: ON HER SHOULDERS