“Green Book” was named Best Film of the Year with Viggo Mortensen winning overall Best Actor, while “A Star is Born” and “Beale Street” also picked up multiple wins from the National Board of Review.
Peter Farrelly, formerly best known for 1990s comedies “Dumb and Dumber” and “There’s Something About Mary,” continues to accumulate trophies from prestige film industry events.
His 2018 excursion, a dramatization of the real-life 1950s road trip undertaken by African-American classical pianist Don Shirley and his bodyguard and driver Tony Vallelonga, was named Best Film of the Year by the National Board of Review.
Viggo Mortensen is the year’s Best Actor for his portrayal of Vallelonga himself.
Bradley Cooper’s first foray into feature film directing netted him Best Director for “A Star is Born,” the platform for Lady Gaga to win Best Actress in her first co-starring role, and Best Supporting Actor for Sam Elliott.
Similarly, “If Beale Street Could Talk” won writer-director Barry Jenkins the NBR’s Best Adapted Screenplay award and Regina King the Best Supporting Actress accolade.
The NBR’s other screenplay award, Best Original, went to Paul Schrader, writer-director of “First Reformed.”
“Incredibles 2” won Best Animated Feature, “Crazy Rich Asians” the Best Ensemble award, Bo Burnham the Best Directorial Debut for “Eighth Grade,” and Thomasin McKenzie the Breakthrough Performance award for her co-starring role in “Leave No Trace.”
Poland’s submission to the Academy Awards’ Best Foreign Language category, the Paweł Pawlikowski historical drama “Cold War,” won in the NBR’s equivalent category.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg legal career documentary “RBG” won Best Documentary, 2011 Norway Attacks dramatization “22 July” and Nadia Murad documentary “On Her Shoulders” both won a Freedom of Expression award.
The double-header of Orson Welles’ last film “The Other Side of the Wind” and accompanying making-of documentary “They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead” won the Film History award.
The NBR also released a list of its Top Films of the year, which should make for interesting reading in comparison to the AFI’s annual list (due December 4) and the eventual Best Picture nominees list at the Academy Awards (due January 22, 2019.)
“The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,” “Black Panther,” “Can You Ever Forgive Me?,” “Eighth Grade,” “First Reformed,” “If Beale Street Could Talk,” “Mary Poppins Returns,” “A Quiet Place,” “Roma” and “A Star Is Born” made the NBR’s overall top ten.
Further lists for Independent Films, Documentaries, and Foreign Language Films were also published.
