NBR Loves Manchester by the Sea
Tuesday, November 29, 2016 at 4:06PM
NATHANIEL R in Krisha, Manchester by the Sea, NBR, precursor awards

The National Board of Review, the only non-industry and non-journalist/critic group of note that passes out awards each year have announced their winners. They are notoriously secretive and hard to predict apart from three things: their eternal love for Clint Eastwood (even when no one else is loving him as with titles like Hereafter) so we knew Sully would be on their list; their recency bias (they love December releases historically more than Oscar); and their magical not-at-all suspicious divvying up of prizes to make sure each studio must purchases a table at their banquet.

Their top winner this year were Kenneth Lonergan's Manchester by the Sea which won four awards and Moonlight which won two. No other film took multiple prizes though some received a prize plus a citation on one of their top five / top ten lists. Notable Oscar hopefuls that received no mentions whatsover: Jackie, Lion, Loving, Fences, Florence Foster Jenkins, Toni Erdmann and Love & Friendship.

The winners and list are after the jump...

Best Film:  Manchester by the Sea

This prize nearly always correlates with a Best Picture nomination but we knew Manchester was headed there already.

Best Director:  Barry Jenkins, Moonlight

Best Actor:  Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea

Amy likes the attention given the tough competition for Best Actress this year.

Best Actress: Amy Adams, Arrival

Best Supporting Actor: Jeff Bridges, Hell or High Water

Best Supporting Actress:  Naomie Harris, Moonlight

They sometimes go out on crazy welcome limbs for performance awards but this year they stuck with people who are definitely in the hunt. 

Best Original Screenplay:  Kenneth Lonergan, Manchester by the Sea

if they saw Silence at all it benefitted from "recency" bias since it was obviously the last film screened.

Best Adapted Screenplay:  Jay Cocks and Martin Scorsese, Silence

Best Animated Feature:  Kubo and the Two Strings

Breakthrough Performance (Male): Lucas Hedges, Manchester by the Sea

Breakthrough Performance (Female): Royalty Hightower, The Fits

Krish is having a good week. It also took a prize with the Gotham Awards

Best Directorial Debut:  Trey Edward Shults, Krisha

Best Foreign Language Film: The Salesman

Best Documentary:  O.J.: Made in America

Best Ensemble:  Hidden Figures

Spotlight Award: Creative Collaboration of Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg

NBR Freedom of Expression Award:  Cameraperson


Top Films
Arrival
Hacksaw Ridge
Hail, Caesar!
Hell or High Water
Hidden Figures
La La Land
Moonlight
Patriots Day
Silence
Sully

Hidden Figures, Silence, and Patriot's Day all have two citations to help as advertisements when they open.

Top 10 Independent Films
20th Century Women
Captain Fantastic
Creative Control
Eye in the Sky
The Fits
Green Room
Hello, My Name is Doris
Krisha
Morris from America
Sing Street

No citation for The Witch or Love & Friendship? Boo! 

Top 5 Foreign Language Films
Elle
The Handmaiden
Julieta
Land of Mine
Neruda

It's worth noting that two of these are still in theaters (Elle and The Handmaiden so get to them quickly!) Julieta and Neruda and Land of Mine have not yet opened but will be hitting select theaters between December and February or so, depending on where you live. The only one that is not eligible for the Oscar correlative category is The Handmaiden since Korea submitted The Age of Shadows instead.

Top 5 Documentaries
De Palma
The Eagle Huntress
Gleason
Life, Animated
Miss Sharon Jones!

Article originally appeared on The Film Experience (http://thefilmexperience.net/).
See website for complete article licensing information.