National Board of Review Names ‘A Most Violent Year’ the Best Film of 2014
Awards, awards, and more awards! And then, for dessert, additional awards! Yep, it’s December all right, and that means every group of movie lovers under the sun is giving out their prizes for the best films of the year. The National Board of Review, the country’s leading body dedicated to reviewing boards from our nation, just announced their favorites, including their pick for the top movie of 2014: J.C. Chandor’s ‘A Most Violent Year,’ starring Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain.
Each star also snagged an NBR award of their own; Isaac was named Best Actor (alongside ‘Birdman’’s Michael Keaton), while Jessica Chastain received the Best Supporting Actress prize. Among the NBR’s other eclectic choices: perennial awards favorite Clint Eastwood garnered his umpteenth Best Director prize for ‘American Sniper,’ Brad Pitt’s tank movie ‘Fury’ won Best Ensemble, and ‘The LEGO Movie’ received a Best Original Screenplay award (based on a children’s toy still counts as “original,” I guess). “We’re quirky and we have a different take,” NBR president Annie Schulhof told Variety.
Ms. Schulhof understands her organization well, even if nobody else does. Here’s the full list of NBR winners. I hope they each receive a prize shaped like a gold-covered board.
The 2014 National Board of Review Award Winners
Best Film: ‘A Most Violent Year’
Best Director: Clint Eastwood, ‘American Sniper’
Best Actor: Oscar Isaac, ‘A Most Violent Year,’ and Michael Keaton, ‘Birdman’
Best Actress: Julianne Moore, ‘Still Alice’
Best Supporting Actor: Edward Norton, ‘Birdman’
Best Supporting Actress: Jessica Chastain, ‘A Most Violent Year’
Best Original Screenplay: Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, ‘The LEGO Movie’
Best Adapted Screenplay: Paul Thomas Anderson, ‘Inherent Vice’
Best Animated Feature: ‘How to Train Your Dragon 2’
Breakthrough Performance: Jack O’Connell, ‘Starred Up’ and ‘Unbroken’
Best Directorial Debut: Gillian Robespierre, ‘Obvious Child’
Best Foreign Language Film: ‘Wild Tales’
Best Documentary: ‘Life Itself’
Best Ensemble: ‘Fury’
Spotlight Award: Chris Rock, ‘Top Five’
NBR Freedom of Expression Award: ‘Rosewater’ and ‘Selma’
NBR’s Top Films (in alphabetical order):
‘American Sniper’
‘Birdman’
‘Boyhood’
‘Fury’
‘Gone Girl’
‘The Imitation Game’
‘Inherent Vice’
‘The LEGO Movie’
‘Nightcrawler’
‘Unbroken’
Top 5 Foreign Language Films (in alphabetical order):
‘Force Majeure’
‘Gett: The Trial of Vivian Amsalem’
‘Leviathan’
‘Two Days, One Night’
‘We Are the Best!’
Top 5 Documentaries (in alphabetical order):
‘Art and Craft’
‘Jodorowsky’s Dune’
‘Keep On Keepin’ On’
‘The Kill Team’
‘Last Days in Vietnam’
Top 10 Independent Films (in alphabetical order):
‘Blue Ruin’
‘Locke’
‘A Most Wanted Man’
‘Mr. Turner’
‘Obvious Child’
‘The Skeleton Twins’
‘Snowpiercer’
‘Stand Clear of the Closing Doors’
‘Starred Up’
‘Still Alice’
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