Steven Prusakowski
Moments ago, the National Board of Review announced their prizes for this year, including a surprising pick for Best Film. They went with Top Gun; Maverick for that honor, while Steven Spielberg took Best Director for The Fabelmans. You can see all of the results below, but the Top Gun sequel sure got a nice boost today.
Here are all of the National Board of Review winners:
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
I know most of these awards guilds try to “lobby” the Oscars to some degree, but naming Top Gun: Maverick the best film of 2022 seems a little more overtly signaling that than usual…
A tiny bit. A deserving win, in my opinion, but definitely being done to boost its prestige.