08 Dec National Board of Review Releases Their Top 10; ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Named Best Film
‘Top Gun: Maverick’ won its first major award and the second major critics award of the year (after Tar won NYFCC on December 2nd). Claudio Miranda also picked up his second major cinematography prize after starting the season by triumphing at NYFCC. Both my top frontrunners (Everything Everywhere All at Once and The Fabelmans) both made the cut, cementing their place as the top of this year’s contenders.
The Banshees of Inisherin also performed well, winning for both its stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson (in Best Actor and Supporting Actor respectively) and in Original Screenplay. ‘Banshees’, along with Women Talking and NYFCC winner Tar (which did not make the cut here) round out the top five strongest players.
NBR is our first semi-strong predictor of the Best Picture nominee slate, here is its track record in the past 10 years:
2012 — 7/9
2013 — 5/9
2014 — 4/8
2015 — 5/8
2016 — 7/9
2017 — 6/9 (The Shape of Water was not picked by the NBR)
2018 — 4/8
2019 — 6/9 (Parasite won Best Foreign Language Film)
2020 — 5/8 2021 – 7/10
Also, in the last 10 years every eventual Best Picture winner except for The Shape of Water in 2017 was a member of the NBR’s Top 10 Films, which makes it seem very likely that the eventual Best Picture winner from this year will one of the 10 films chosen by the NBR.
Here are the National Board of Review’s 2022 honorees:
Best Film
Top Gun: Maverick
Best Director
Steven Spielberg, The Fabelmans
Best Actor
Colin Farrell, The Banshees of Inisherin
Best Actress
Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Best Supporting Actor
Brendan Gleeson, The Banshees of Inisherin
Best Supporting Actress
Janelle Monáe, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Best Original Screenplay
Martin McDonagh, The Banshees of Inisherin
Best Adapted Screenplay
Edward Berger, Lesley Paterson, Ian Stokell, All Quiet on the Western Front
Breakthrough Performance
Danielle Deadwyler, Till
Breakthrough Performance
Gabriel LaBelle, The Fabelmans
Best Directorial Debut
Charlotte Wells, Aftersun
Best Animated Feature
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
Best International Film
Close
Best Documentary
Sr.
Best Ensemble
Women Talking
Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography
Claudio Miranda, Top Gun: Maverick
NBR Freedom of Expression Awards
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
Argentina, 1985
Top Films (in alphabetical order):
Aftersun
Avatar: The Way of Water
The Banshees of Inisherin
Everything Everywhere All at Once
The Fabelmans
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
RRR
Till
The Woman King
Women Talking
Top 5 International Films (in alphabetical order)
All Quiet on the Western Front
Argentina, 1985
Decision to Leave
EO
Saint Omer
Top 5 Documentaries (in alphabetical order)
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
All That Breathes
Descendant
Turn Every Page – The Adventures of Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb
Wildcat
Top 10 Independent Films (in alphabetical order)
Armageddon Time
Emily the Criminal
The Eternal Daughter
Funny Pages
The Inspection
Living
A Love Song
Nanny
The Wonder
To Leslie
Source: Deadline
Based on NBR’s track record, we can assume that it’s pretty likely that at least 6 of the 11 films picked by NBR will go on to become Best Picture nominees. In my mind, this is the list of NBR’s top eleven films in order of their likelihood to get a BP nomination: Everything Everywhere All at Once (my predicted winner at this stage), The Fabelmans, The Banshees of Inisherin, Women Talking, Top Gun: Maverick, Glass Onion, Till, Aftersun, The Woman King, Avatar: The Way of the Water, RRR.
With AFI coming out with its list tomorrow, Oscar season is truly coming into full swing!