Awards groups continue their need for speed, as the National Board of Review went full Hollywood in their selections of Best Film and Best Director for 2022. The billion-dollar blockbuster “Top Gun: Maverick” took Best Film and Steven Spielberg won Best Director for his heart-rending ode to his childhood in “The Fabelmans”.
Michelle Yeoh continues her hot streak with a Best Actress win for “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” as does Colin Farrell with his Best Actor honors for Martin McDonagh’s “The Banshees of Inisherin” (the director took the original screenplay prize), but his costar Brendan Gleeson picked up awards steam with a Best Supporting Actor nod, and “Glass Onion” standout Janelle Monáe bursts into the awards conversation with her notably twisty turn in Rian Johnson’s “Knives Out” follow-up.
This marks the first time a blockbuster film has taken the top prize since 2015’s “Mad Max: Fury Road”. The National Board of Review is a New York-based organization made up of what it describes as “film enthusiasts, filmmakers, professionals and academics of various ages and backgrounds.” In its first 77 years, its winning film went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture 24 times, though the two groups have agreed only three times in this century.
Below is a full list of the 2022 award recipients, announced by the National Board of Review:
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”
The NBR Awards Gala is scheduled to take place on Sunday, January 8, 2023 in New York
Additional reporting by Steve Pond