‘The Post’ Named Best Film of 2017 by National Board of Review, Earning Three Wins

You feel that? Awards season has officially begun. Last night’s Gotham Awards kicked off the long road of prognostication leading up to the 2018 Oscars, and today the National Board of Review announced their awards winners. And this year, Steven Spielberg is coming out on top.

Spielberg’s upcoming Pentagon Papers drama, The Post, was named the Best Film of 2017, along with earning the Best Actress and Best Actor honors for stars Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks, respectively. There was some variation spread across the rest of the awards though. The group recognized Get Out and Lady Bird with two awards apiece, along with Willem Dafoe’s supporting turn in The Florida Project and Timothée Chalamet for Breakthrough Performance in Call Me By Your Name – last year the NBR honored male and female breakthrough roles separately, but they’ve seemed to combine them for this year’s awards.

It’s worth noting that the NBR’s awards aren’t often a good indication for what to expect from the Oscars. The National Board of Review members and the Academy haven’t agreed on a top winner since 2008’s Slumdog Millionaire. Last year the board named Manchester By the Sea Best Film, while awarding Barry Jenkins with Best Director for Moonlight. The two groups did agree on Kenneth Lonergan’s Best Original Screenplay win for Manchester By the Sea and Casey Affleck for Best Actor. Still, the board’s gonna do what the board’s gonna do, but if anything, The Post love isn’t all that surprising. Are we in store for another Meryl Streep sweep? After the first reactions to the historical newspaper drama came out this morning, that may just be the case.

See the full list of winners below:

Best Film: The Post

Best Director: Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird

Best Actor: Tom Hanks, The Post

Best Actress: Meryl Streep, The Post

Best Supporting Actor: Willem Dafoe, The Florida Project

Best Supporting Actress: Laurie Metcalf, Lady Bird

Best Original Screenplay: Paul Thomas Anderson, Phantom Thread

Best Adapted Screenplay: Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber, The Disaster Artist

Best Animated Feature: Coco

Breakthrough Performance: Timothée Chalamet, Call Me By Your Name

Best Directorial Debut: Jordan Peele, Get Out

Best Foreign Language Film: Foxtrot

Best Documentary: Jane

Best Ensemble: Get Out

Spotlight Award: Creative Collaboration by Patty Jenkins and Gal Gadot, Wonder Woman

NBR Freedom of Expression Award: At First They Killed Me Father, Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982 - 1992

The National Board of Review also released alphabetical lists of their best films of the year, both documentary and narrative, mainstream releases and indie.

NBR’s Top 10 Films of 2017: Baby Driver, Call Me By Your Name, The Disaster Artist, Downsizing, Dunkirk, The Florida Project, Get Out, Lady Bird, Logan, Phantom Thread

NBR’s Top 10 Independent Films of 2017: Beatriz at Dinner, Brigsby Bear, A Ghost Story, Lady Macbeth, Logan Lucky, Loving Vincent, Menashe, Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer, Patti Cake$, Wind River

NBR’s Top 5 Documentary Films of 2017: A Fantastic Woman, Frantz, Loveless, Summer 1993, The Square

NBR’s Top 5 Foreign Films of 2017: Small Enough to Jail, Brimstone & Glory, Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars, Faces Places, Hell on Earth: The Fall of Syria and Rise of ISIS

Gallery – The Most Overlooked Performances and Movies of 2017: