NBR flies off into the sunset with "Top Gun Maverick"
Thursday, December 8, 2022 at 5:51PM
NATHANIEL R in NBR, The Banshees of Inisherin, The Fabelmans, Top Gun Maverick, precursor awards

by Nathaniel R

TOP GUN MAVERICK

The National Board of Review has spoken. They've named the year's biggest box office hit Top Gun Maverick the very best film of 2022. They also loved two other presumed Best Picture certainties: The Fablemans and The Banshees of Inisherin giving both multiple prizes. The NBR also made an effort to boost the profiles of four subtitled films hoping for kudos this awards season: Germany's All Quiet on the Western Front, Argentina's Argentina 1985, India's RRR, and Belgium's Close. The enduring organization didn't love all the Oscar hopefuls though.  Among the high profile complete shutouts: Babylon, Pinocchio, Triangle of Sadness, Elvis, Tár, and The Whale. Full list of winners and comments follow...

Film: TOP GUN MAVERICK
The rest of their top ten (er... top 11) is in alpha order 

Director: Steven Spielberg, THE FABELMANS

Weird Trivia Note: Exactly half of their 32 most recent winners have gone on to Oscar nominations. They never stray far from general Oscar buzz in this particular category and yet, weirdly it's their lowest Oscar correlation within the high profile categories in terms of winners becoming Oscar nominees.

Two acting prizes for THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN

Actor: Colin Farrell, THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN
Maybe he is a real threat to Brendan Fraser's long presumed win at the forthcoming Oscars? Or maybe not. NBR lead actor winners don't usually repeat at the Oscars; in the past 15 years only Casey Affleck and Will Smith have won both... 

Supporting Actor: Brendan Gleeson, BANSHEES OF INISHERIN
Most of their winners in this category go on to Oscar nominations but like lead actor they don't usually win. In the past 15 years only Christian Bale, Christopher Plummer, and Brad Pitt have won both. 

EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE

Actress: Michelle Yeoh, EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE
This is the first time NBR has ever given Best Actress to an Asian woman.

Most winners here go on to an Oscar nod. The three most recent misses were Rachel Zegler (West Side Story), Amy Adams (Arrival), and Emma Thompson (Saving Mr Banks). 

Supporting Actress: Janelle Monáe, GLASS ONION
18 of the last 32 winners have gone on to an Oscar nomination. As with Best Director this is NBR's only other high profile category that doesn't have a particular high rate of Oscar correlation through the years. That's changing though since the NBR has been getting less and less daring in their choices in this category (they used to just go really wild in this category). The last time somebody missed an Oscar nomination after winning the NBR in this category was eight years ago: Jessica Chastain in  A Most Violent Year (2014). 

Original Screenplay: Martin McDonagh, THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN

ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT

Adapted Screenplay: Edward Berger, Lesley Paterson, Ian Stokell, ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT

Nice get for this strong German film though we have to admit that the screenplay is not the first thing we think about when we're thinking about it since it's such a visceral visual and sonic experience. 

Breakthrough Performance: Danielle Deadwyler, TILL and Gabriel LaBelle, THE FABELMANS 

The NBR has been giving out this prize since 1995 and in the 27 years of the prize, 18 times it's been a double award (usually but not always split by gender).
 

Directorial Debut: Charlotte Wells, AFTERSUN

We love Aftersun but we're curious... will any other debut film win any "Debut" prizes this season? 

Animated Feature: MARCELL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON
The NBR is super mainstream in terms of this particular category (almost always a huge studio CG effort) so this is a bit of a surprise. It bodes well for Oscar love too since they rarely go "arthouse". In other words, if even NBR loves it...

CLOSE

Foreign Language Film: CLOSE (Belgium)
They also release a top 5, alphabetically, so essentially a top six. The others are:

We will probably see all 6 of those titles in the Oscar finalist list but not all of them will make it since there are only 5 Oscar nominees.


Documentary: "SR"
Same thing with a top six. The others are:

A bit of a surprise here since Turn Every Page and Wildcat haven't been showing up in the other Doc precursors. Will they make the Oscar finals? (Here's the complete eligibility list) 

Acting by an Ensemble: WOMEN TALKING

This award has less correlation to SAG's eventual nominees for Outstanding Cast than you'd think. In the past two decades only about half of the winners have gone on to that parallel nomination at SAG.

Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography: Claudio Miranda, TOP GUN MAVERICK

We knew this would end up in the Oscar mix for Cinematography but still surprised that it is the unanimous choice amongst precursor groups so far for this craft. 

NBR Freedom of Expression Award: ALL THE BEAUTY AND THE BLOODSHED and ARGENTINA 1985

Top Ten Independent Films
(Alpha Order)

TO LESLIE

If the NBR really loves an "indie" they just stick it in their normal top ten (see Aftersun this time and Red Rocket last year). So even though it's a delight to see so many films recognized it often does feel like "a way to sell more tables at their party!"

What do you think of their choices this year? 

Article originally appeared on The Film Experience (http://thefilmexperience.net/).
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