After winning big at last night’s Gotham Awards, Moonlight picked up two more wins with the National Board of Review for director Barry Jenkins and Naomie Harris’ supporting performance.
The big winner here was Kenneth Lonergan’s Manchester By The Sea, which won big in the Best Film, Actor, Original Screenplay and Breakthrough Performance (Male) categories. Other winners include Jeff Bridges from Hell or High Water in Supporting Actor (which remains an extremely wide-open race) and Amy Adams for her outstanding performance in Arrival. With the Actress race so extremely competitive, any sort of precursor award helps those contenders who are on the bubble for those fourth and fifth slots (Adams, Ruth Negga, Isabelle Huppert, Taraji P. Henson and Meryl Streep).
Hidden Figures, which opens in limited release Christmas Day, grabbed the Best Ensemble Award, Kubo and the Two Strings won in Animated Feature and the largely unseen Silence won an Adapted Screenplay award.
The NBR is known for their sometimes out of left field choices; they’re famous for choosing to vote for what they like rather than consensus favorites. And while many of the films/performances they choose to honor do go on to at the very least be nominated for the Oscars, they don’t have the accuracy in being “predictive” that other non-industry groups like the Broadcast Film Critics do. So take these wins with a grain of salt as we start reading the tea leaves and hearing from more groups this weekend.
Read the full list of winners below.
Best Film: Manchester By The Sea
Best Director: Barry Jenkins, Moonlight
Best Actor: Casey Affleck, Manchester By The Sea
Best Actress: Amy Adams, Arrival
Best Supporting Actor: Jeff Bridges, Hell or High Water
Best Supporting Actress: Naomie Harris, Moonlight
Best Original Screenplay: Kenneth Longernan, Manchester By The Sea
Best Adapted Screenplay: Jay Cocks & Martin Scorsese, Silence
Best Breakthrough Performance (Male): Lucas Hedges, Manchester By The Sea
Best Breakthrough Performance (Female): Royalty Hightower, The Fits
Best Directorial Debut: Trey Edward Shults, Krisha
Best Foreign Language Film: The Salesman
Best Documentary: O.J.: Made In America
Best Ensemble: Hidden Figures
Spotlight Award: Creative Collaboration of Peter Berg & Mark Wahlberg
NBR Freedom of Expression Award: Cameraperson
Top Films:
Arrival
Hacksaw Ridge
Hail, Caesar!
Hidden Figures
La La Land
Moonlight
Patriot’s Day
Silence
Sully
Top 5 Foreign Language Films:
Elle
The Handmaiden
Julietta
Land of Mine
Neruda
Top 5 Documentaries:
De Palma
The Eagle Huntress
Gleason
Life, Animated
Miss Sharon Jones!
Top 10 Independent Films:
20th Century Women
Captain Fantastic
Creative Control
Eye in the Sky
The Fits
Green Room
Hello, My Name Is Doris
Krisha
Morris From America
Sing Street