In the past, the National Board of Review were considered to be a big deal because they were the first of the critics groups to announce their yearly awards and winning with the NBR could help to generate momentum for a film going into the awards season.  No one was really sure just who exactly the NBR voters were but they were the first to announce and that was all that mattered.

However, that all changed when the Academy decided to extend the year’s eligibility window and to also hold off on announcing the Oscar nominations into February.  The National Board Of Review followed suit and decided to hold off on handing out their awards until late January, presumably so that they could continue to be seen as Academy influencers.  As a result of bunch of regional critics got the jump on the NBR and now Nomadland and Promising Young Woman have so much momentum that it’s kind of hard to really care that the NBR honored Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods instead.

(That said, it is kind of interesting that Nomadland is kind of underrepresented as far as the NBR rewards are concerned.  It won for for Joshua James Richards’s cinematography and it was included as one of the “top films of the year,” but otherwise, it was pretty much ignored in favor of Da 5 Bloods, Promising Young Woman, Minari, and Sound of Metal.  Nomadland didn’t even pick up the award for Best Adapted Screenplay, instead losing out to News of the World, a film that otherwise really hasn’t been a huge factor in 2020’s extended awards season.)

Anyway, for what their worth, here are the winners from the National Board of Review:

Best Film: “Da 5 Bloods”
Best Director: Spike Lee – “Da 5 Bloods”
Best Actor: Riz Ahmed – “Sound of Metal”
Best Actress: Carey Mulligan – “Promising Young Woman”
Best Supporting Actor: Paul Raci – “Sound of Metal”
Best Supporting Actress: Youn Yuh-jung – “Minari”
Best Adapted Screenplay: Paul Greengrass & Luke Davies – “News of the World”
Best Original Screenplay: Lee Isaac Chung – “Minari”
Breakthrough Performance: Sidney Flanigan – “Never Rarely Sometimes Always”
Best Directorial Debut: Channing Godfrey Peoples – “Miss Juneteenth”
Best Animated Feature: “Soul”
Best Foreign Language Film: “La Llorona”
Best Documentary: “Time”
NBR Icon Award: Chadwick Boseman
NBR Freedom of Expression Award: “One Night in Miami”
NBR Spotlight Award: Radha Blank for writing, directing, producing and starring in “The Forty-Year-Old Version”
Best Ensemble: “Da 5 Bloods”
Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography: Joshua James Richards – “Nomadland”

Top Films (in alphabetical order):
First Cow
The Forty-Year-Old Version
Judas and the Black Messiah
The Midnight Sky
Minari
News of the World
Nomadland
Promising Young Woman
Soul
Sound of Metal

Top 5 Foreign Language Films (in alphabetical order):
Apples
Collective
Dear Comrades
The Mole Agent
Night of the Kings

Top 5 Documentaries (in alphabetical order):
All In: The Fight for Democracy
Boys State
Dick Johnson is Dead
Miss Americana
The Truffle Hunters

Top 10 Independent Films (in alphabetical order):
The Climb
Driveways
Farewell Amor
Miss Juneteenth
The Nest
Never Rarely Sometimes Always
The Outpost
Relic
Saint Frances
Wolfwalkers