National Board of Review Announces 2017 Winners

Steven Spielberg’s The Post, the story about how the Washington Post fell behind in its coverage of the Pentagon Papers, only to make leaps ahead, was named best picture of 2017 by the National Board of Review. The pic’s Tom Hanks landed best actor and Meryl Streep best actress from the critics group today.

In addition, Universal/Blumhouse’s Get Out continued to show it is a force this awards season earning best directorial debut for Jordan Peele, best ensemble, and a spot on the organization’s top 10 film list. Add this on top of Get Out‘s five Spirit Awards nominations and last night’s wins at the Gotham Awards for best director, screenplay, audience award and Bingham Ray breakthrough director honor.

Greta Gerwig won best director for Lady Bird, the latest honor in the category for a female director following Kathryn Bigelow’s win in 2012 for Zero Dark Thirty. Laurie Metcalf also won best supporting actress for the pic, and it also wound up on NBR’s top 10 movies of the year. Lady Bird won last night at the Gothams with Saoirse Ronan taking best actress. Last week, Lady Bird counted four Spirit Awards nominations, for Metcalf as supporting actress, Ronan as lead female, best screenplay by Gerwig, and best feature.

If there’s one awards organization that does it their way, it’s the National Board of Review, as they traditionally recognize movies that aren’t always surefire bets by the time Oscars are handed out. When it comes to being a prognosticator of Oscar’s best picture winner, NBR and AMPAS haven’t seen eye-to-eye since 2008’s Slumdog Millionaire.

Last year, NBR lauded Kenneth Lonergan’s Manchester by the Sea as best film, while the Oscars gave the trophy to Moonlight. In addition, both organizations haven’t agreed on best director since 2005 when Martin Scorsese won for The Departed. However, NBR and Oscar were on the same page with Lonergan’s winning screenplay, and Manchester‘s Casey Affleck as best actor.

The 2017 honorees will be feted at the annual National Board of Review awards gala, hosted by Willie Geist, on Tuesday, January 9, 2018 at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York. Each year, the select group of film enthusiasts, filmmakers, professionals and academics of varying ages and backgrounds watch more than 250 films and participate in discussions with directors, actors, producers and screenwriters before announcing their selection.

Here’s today’s full list of winners:

BEST FILM
The Post

BEST DIRECTOR
Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird

BEST DIRECTORIAL DEBUT
Jordan Peele, Get Out

BEST CAST ENSEMBLE
Get Out

BEST ACTOR
Tom Hanks, The Post

BEST ACTRESS
Meryl Streep, The Post

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Willem Dafoe, The Florida Project

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Laurie Metcalf, Lady Bird

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Coco (Disney/Pixar)

BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE
Timothée Chalamet, Call Me By Your Name

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Phantom Thread, Paul Thomas Anderson

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
The Disaster Artist (Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber)

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Foxtrot (Sony Classics, Israel)

TOP FOREIGN FILMS
A Fantastic Woman
Frantz
Loveless
Summer 1993
The Square

SPOTLIGHT AWARD
Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins and actress Gal Gadot

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION (tie)
John Ridley’s Let it Fall: Los Angeles, 1982-1992
Angelina Jolie’s First They Killed My Father

BEST DOCUMENTARY
Jane (Nat Geo)

TOP FIVE DOCUMENTARIES
Abacus: Small Enough to Jail
Brimstone & Glory
Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars
Faces Places
Hell on Earth: The Fall of Syria and the Rise of ISIS

TOP 10 MOVIES
Baby Driver
Call Me By Your Name
The Disaster Artist
Downsizing
Dunkirk
The Florida Project
Get Out
Lady Bird
Logan
Phantom Thread

TOP 10 INDEPENDENT MOVIES
Beatriz at Dinner
Brigsby Bear
A Ghost Story
Lady Macbeth
Logan Lucky
Loving Vincent
Menashe
Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer
Patti Cake$
Wind River