Best Film by National Board of Review of Motion Pictures
"The National Board of Review Award for Best Film is one of the annual awards given (since 1932) to the producer of a film by the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures."
Last updated: May 3rd, 2022
Weight: 75
Detractions
- Yearly award (-25)
Films (94)
1. Licorice Pizza
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson | Rated R | 133 min | 2021
The story of Alana Kane and Gary Valentine growing up, running around and going through the treacherous navigation of first love in the San Fernando Valley, 1973.
2. Da 5 Bloods
Directed by Spike Lee | Rated R | 154 min | 2020
Four African-American vets battle the forces of man and nature when they return to Vietnam seeking the remains of their fallen squad leader and the gold fortune he helped them hide.
3. The Irishman
Directed by Martin Scorsese | Rated R | 209 min | 2019
A mob hitman recalls his friend Jimmy Hoffa.
4. Green Book
Directed by Peter Farrelly | Rated PG-13 | 130 min | 2018
A working-class Italian-American bouncer becomes the driver of an African-American classical pianist on a tour of venues through the 1960s American South.
5. The Post
Directed by Steven Spielberg | Rated PG-13 | 116 min | 2017
A cover-up that spanned four U.S. Presidents pushed the country's first female newspaper publisher and a hard-driving editor to join an unprecedented battle between the press and the government.
6. Manchester by the Sea
Directed by Kenneth Lonergan | Rated R | 137 min | 2016
An uncle is forced to take care of his teenage nephew after the boy's father dies.
7. Mad Max: Fury Road
Directed by George Miller | Rated R | 120 min | 2015
A woman rebels against a tyrannical ruler in postapocalyptic Australia in search for her home-land with the help of a group of female prisoners, a psychotic worshipper, and a drifter named Max.
8. A Most Violent Year
Directed by J.C. Chandor | Rated R | 125 min | 2014
In New York City 1981, an ambitious immigrant fights to protect his business and family during the most dangerous year in the city's history.
9. Her
Directed by Spike Jonze | Rated R | 126 min | 2013
A lonely writer develops an unlikely relationship with his newly-purchased operating system that's designed to meet his every need.
10. Zero Dark Thirty
Directed by Kathryn Bigelow | Rated R | 157 min | 2012
A chronicle of the decade-long hunt for al-Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden after the September 2001 attacks, and his death at the hands of the Navy S.E.A.L.s Team 6 in May 2011.
11. Hugo
Directed by Martin Scorsese | Rated PG | 126 min | 2011
Set in 1930s Paris, an orphan who lives in the walls of a train station is wrapped up in a mystery involving his late father and an automaton.
12. The Social Network
Directed by David Fincher | Rated PG-13 | 120 min | 2010
Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg creates the social networking site that would become known as Facebook, but is later sued by two brothers who claimed he stole their idea, and the co-founder who was later squeezed out of the business.
13. Up in the Air
Directed by Jason Reitman | Rated R | 109 min | 2009
With a job traveling around the country firing people, Ryan Bingham enjoys his life living out of a suitcase, but finds that lifestyle threatened by the presence of a new hire and a potential love interest.
14. Slumdog Millionaire
Directed by Danny Boyle, Loveleen Tandan | Rated R | 120 min | 2008
A Mumbai teen reflects on his upbringing in the slums when he is accused of cheating on the Indian Version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?"
15. No Country for Old Men
Directed by Ethan Coen, Joel Coen | Rated R | 122 min | 2007
Violence and mayhem ensue after a hunter stumbles upon a drug deal gone wrong and more than two million dollars in cash near the Rio Grande.
16. Letters from Iwo Jima
Directed by Clint Eastwood | Rated R | 141 min | 2006
The story of the battle of Iwo Jima between the United States and Imperial Japan during World War II, as told from the perspective of the Japanese who fought it.
17. Good Night, and Good Luck.
Directed by George Clooney | Rated PG | 93 min | 2005
Broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow looks to bring down Senator Joseph McCarthy.
18. Finding Neverland
Directed by Marc Forster | Rated PG | 106 min | 2004
The story of J.M. Barrie's friendship with a family who inspired him to create Peter Pan.
19. Mystic River
Directed by Clint Eastwood | Rated R | 138 min | 2003
With a childhood tragedy that overshadowed their lives, three men are reunited by circumstance when one has a family tragedy.
20. The Hours
Directed by Stephen Daldry | Rated PG-13 | 114 min | 2002
The story of how the novel "Mrs. Dalloway" affects three generations of women, all of whom, in one way or another, have had to deal with suicide in their lives.
21. Moulin Rouge!
Directed by Baz Luhrmann | Rated PG-13 | 127 min | 2001
A poet falls for a beautiful courtesan whom a jealous duke covets in this stylish musical, with music drawn from familiar 20th century sources.
22. Quills
Directed by Philip Kaufman | Rated R | 124 min | 2000
In a Napoleonic era insane asylum, an inmate, the irrepressible Marquis De Sade, fights a battle of wills against a tyrannically prudish doctor.
23. American Beauty
Directed by Sam Mendes | Rated R | 122 min | 1999
A sexually frustrated suburban father has a mid-life crisis after becoming infatuated with his daughter's best friend.
24. Gods and Monsters
Directed by Bill Condon | Rated R | 105 min | 1998
The last days of Frankenstein (1931) director James Whale are explored.
25. L.A. Confidential
Directed by Curtis Hanson | Rated R | 138 min | 1997
As corruption grows in 1950s LA, three policemen - one strait-laced, one brutal, and one sleazy - investigate a series of murders with their own brand of justice.
26. Shine
Directed by Scott Hicks | Rated PG-13 | 105 min | 1996
Pianist David Helfgott, driven by his father and teachers, has a breakdown. Years later he returns to the piano, to popular if not critical acclaim.
27. Sense and Sensibility
Directed by Ang Lee | Rated PG | 136 min | 1995
Rich Mr. Dashwood dies, leaving his second wife and her three daughters poor by the rules of inheritance. The two eldest daughters are the titular opposites.
28. Forrest Gump
Directed by Robert Zemeckis | Rated PG-13 | 142 min | 1994
Forrest Gump, while not intelligent, has accidentally been present at many historic moments, but his true love, Jenny Curran, eludes him.
29. Pulp Fiction
Directed by Quentin Tarantino | Rated R | 154 min | 1994
The lives of two mob hit men, a boxer, a gangster's wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption.
30. Schindler's List
Directed by Steven Spielberg | Rated R | 195 min | 1993
In German-occupied Poland during World War II, Oskar Schindler gradually becomes concerned for his Jewish workforce after witnessing their persecution by the Nazi Germans.
31. Howards End
Directed by James Ivory | Rated PG | 140 min | 1992
A businessman thwarts his wife's bequest of an estate to another woman.
32. The Silence of the Lambs
Directed by Jonathan Demme | Rated R | 118 min | 1991
A young F.B.I. cadet must confide in an incarcerated and manipulative killer to receive his help on catching another serial killer who skins his victims.
33. Dances with Wolves
Directed by Kevin Costner | Rated PG-13 | 181 min | 1990
Lt. John Dunbar, exiled to a remote western Civil War outpost, befriends wolves and Indians, making him an intolerable aberration in the military.
34. Driving Miss Daisy
Directed by Bruce Beresford | Rated PG | 99 min | 1989
An old Jewish woman and her African-American chauffeur in the American South have a relationship that grows and improves over the years.
35. Mississippi Burning
Directed by Alan Parker | Rated R | 128 min | 1988
Two FBI agents with wildly different styles arrive in Mississippi to investigate the disappearance of some civil rights activists.
36. Empire of the Sun
Directed by Steven Spielberg | Rated PG | 153 min | 1987
A young English boy struggles to survive under Japanese occupation during World War II.
37. The Color Purple
Directed by Steven Spielberg | Rated PG-13 | 154 min | 1985
A black Southern woman struggles to find her identity after suffering years of abuse from her father and others over 40 years.
38. A Room with a View
Directed by James Ivory | 117 min | 1985
When Lucy Honeychurch and chaperone Charlotte Bartlett find themselves in Florence with rooms without views, fellow guests Mr Emerson and son George step in to remedy the situation. Meeting...
39. A Passage to India
Directed by David Lean | Rated PG | 164 min | 1984
Cultural mistrust and false accusations doom a friendship in British colonial India between an Indian doctor, an Englishwoman engaged to marry a city magistrate, and an English educator.
40. Betrayal
Directed by David Hugh Jones | Rated R | 95 min | 1983
Pinter's semi-autobiographical play examining the surprise attraction, shy first steps, gradual flowering, and treasonous deception of a woman's extramarital affair with her husband's best ...
41. Terms of Endearment
Directed by James L. Brooks | Rated PG | 132 min | 1983
Follows hard-to-please Aurora looking for love and her daughter's family problems.
42. Gandhi
Directed by Richard Attenborough | Rated PG | 191 min | 1982
Gandhi's character is fully explained as a man of nonviolence. Through his patience, he is able to drive the British out of the subcontinent. And the stubborn nature of Jinnah and his commitment towards Pakistan is portrayed.
43. Chariots of Fire
Directed by Hugh Hudson | Rated PG | 125 min | 1981
Two British track athletes, one a determined Jew and the other a devout Christian, compete in the 1924 Olympics.
44. Reds
Directed by Warren Beatty | Rated PG | 195 min | 1981
A radical American journalist becomes involved with the Communist revolution in Russia and hopes to bring its spirit and idealism to the United States.
45. Ordinary People
Directed by Robert Redford | Rated R | 124 min | 1980
The accidental death of the older son of an affluent family deeply strains the relationships among the bitter mother, the good-natured father, and the guilt-ridden younger son.
46. Manhattan
Directed by Woody Allen | Rated R | 96 min | 1979
The life of a divorced television writer dating a teenage girl is further complicated when he falls in love with his best friend's mistress.
47. Days of Heaven
Directed by Terrence Malick | Rated PG | 94 min | 1978
A hot-tempered farm laborer convinces the woman he loves to marry their rich but dying boss so that they can have a claim to his fortune.
48. The Turning Point
Directed by Herbert Ross | Rated PG | 119 min | 1977
When her daughter joins a ballet company, a former dancer is forced to confront her long-ago decision to give up the stage to have a family.
49. All the President's Men
Directed by Alan J. Pakula | Rated PG | 138 min | 1976
"The Washington Post" reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncover the details of the Watergate scandal that leads to President Richard Nixon's resignation.
50. Barry Lyndon
Directed by Stanley Kubrick | Rated PG | 184 min | 1975
An Irish rogue wins the heart of a rich widow and assumes her dead husband's aristocratic position in 18th-century England.
51. Nashville
Directed by Robert Altman | Rated R | 159 min | 1975
Over the course of a few hectic days, numerous interrelated people prepare for a political convention as secrets and lies are surfaced and revealed.
52. The Conversation
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola | Rated PG | 113 min | 1974
A paranoid, secretive surveillance expert has a crisis of conscience when he suspects that a couple he is spying on will be murdered.
53. The Sting
Directed by George Roy Hill | Rated PG | 129 min | 1973
In Chicago in September 1936, a young con man seeking revenge for his murdered partner teams up with a master of the big con to win a fortune from a criminal banker.
55. Macbeth
Directed by Roman Polanski | Rated R | 140 min | 1971
A ruthlessly ambitious Scottish lord seizes the throne with the help of his scheming wife and a trio of witches.
56. Patton
Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner | Rated GP | 172 min | 1970
The World War II phase of the career of the controversial American general, George S. Patton.
57. They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
Directed by Sydney Pollack | Rated M | 129 min | 1969
The lives of a disparate group of contestants intertwine in an inhumanely grueling dance marathon.
58. The Shoes of the Fisherman
Directed by Michael Anderson | Rated G | 162 min | 1968
Ukrainian Archbishop Kiril Lakota is set free after two decades as a political prisoner in Siberia. He is brought to Rome by Fr. David Telemond, a troubled young priest who befriends him. ...
59. Far from the Madding Crowd
Directed by John Schlesinger | Rated PG | 168 min | 1967
Bathsheba Everdene, a willful, flirtatious, young woman, unexpectedly inherits a large farm and is romantically pursued by three very different men.
60. A Man for All Seasons
Directed by Fred Zinnemann | 120 min | 1966
The story of Thomas More, who stood up to King Henry VIII when the King rejected the Roman Catholic Church to obtain a divorce and remarriage.
61. The Eleanor Roosevelt Story
Directed by Richard Kaplan | Rated N/A | 90 min | 1965
An admiring, uncritical biography of Eleanor Roosevelt, released three years after her death. The film focuses solely on her, beginning with her unhappy childhood after both her parents had...
62. Becket
Directed by Peter Glenville | Rated PG-13 | 148 min | 1964
King Henry II of England comes to terms with his affection for his close friend and confidant Thomas à Becket, who finds his true honor by observing God's divine will rather than the king's.
63. Tom Jones
Directed by Tony Richardson | 128 min | 1963
In eighteenth century England, "first cousins" Tom Jones and Master Blifil grew up together in privilege in the western countryside, but could not be more different in nature. Tom, the ...
64. The Longest Day
Directed by Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, Bernhard Wicki, Gerd Oswald, Darryl F. Zanuck | Rated G | 178 min | 1962
The events of D-Day, told on a grand scale from both the Allied and German points of view.
65. Question 7
Directed by Stuart Rosenberg | Rated N/A | 106 min | 1961
Suspenseful story of a boy and his father, each forced to decide his future on his willingness to stand up for what he believes.
66. Sons and Lovers
Directed by Jack Cardiff | Rated N/A | 103 min | 1960
Jack Cardiff received a 1960 Oscar Nomination as Best Director for this lush, engaging film starring Trevor Howard, Dean Stockwell and Donald Pleasence, which was adapted from D.H. ...
67. The Nun's Story
Directed by Fred Zinnemann | 149 min | 1959
After leaving a wealthy Belgian family to become a nun, Sister Luke struggles with her devotion to her vows during crisis, disappointment, and World War II.
68. The Old Man and the Sea
Directed by John Sturges, Henry King, Fred Zinnemann | Rated N/A | 86 min | 1958
An old Cuban fisherman's dry spell is broken when he hooks a gigantic fish that drags him out to sea. Based on Ernest Hemingway's story.
69. The Bridge on the River Kwai
Directed by David Lean | Rated PG | 161 min | 1957
After settling his differences with a Japanese PoW camp commander, a British colonel co-operates to oversee his men's construction of a railway bridge for their captors - while oblivious to a plan by the Allies to destroy it.
70. Around the World in Eighty Days
Directed by Michael Anderson, John Farrow | Rated G | 175 min | 1956
A Victorian Englishman bets that with the new steamships and railways he can do what the title says.
71. Marty
Directed by Delbert Mann | 90 min | 1955
A middle-aged butcher and a school teacher who have given up on the idea of love meet at a dance and fall for each other.
72. On the Waterfront
Directed by Elia Kazan | 108 min | 1954
An ex-prize fighter turned longshoreman struggles to stand up to his corrupt union bosses.
73. Julius Caesar
Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz | 120 min | 1953
The growing ambition of Julius Caesar is a source of major concern to his close friend Brutus. Cassius persuades him to participate in his plot to assassinate Caesar but they have both sorely underestimated Mark Antony.
74. The Quiet Man
Directed by John Ford | 129 min | 1952
A retired American boxer returns to the village of his birth in Ireland, where he finds love.
75. A Place in the Sun
Directed by George Stevens | 122 min | 1951
A poor boy gets a job working for his rich uncle and ends up falling in love with two women.
76. Sunset Boulevard
Directed by Billy Wilder | 110 min | 1950
A hack screenwriter writes a screenplay for a former silent-film star who has faded into Hollywood obscurity.
77. Bicycle Thieves
Directed by Vittorio De Sica | 89 min | 1948
Set in Post-WWII Italy, a working class man's bicycle is stolen. He and his son set out to find it.
78. Monsieur Verdoux
Directed by Charles Chaplin | 124 min | 1947
A suave but cynical man supports his family by marrying and murdering rich women for their money, but the job has some occupational hazards.
79. Paisan
Directed by Roberto Rossellini | 120 min | 1946
Six vignettes follow the Allied invasion from July 1943 to winter 1944, from Sicily north to Venice. Communication is fragile. A woman leads an Allied patrol through a mine field; she dies ...
80. The True Glory
Directed by Garson Kanin, Carol Reed | Rated N/A | 87 min | 1945
A documentary account of the allied invasion of Europe during World War II compiled from the footage shot by nearly 1400 cameramen. It opens as the assembled allied forces plan and train ...
81. None But the Lonely Heart
Directed by Clifford Odets | 113 min | 1944
When an itinerant reluctantly returns home to help his sickly mother run her shop, they are both tempted to turn to crime to help make ends meet.
82. Henry V
Directed by Laurence Olivier | 137 min | 1944
In the midst of the Hundred Years' War in 1415, the young King Henry V of England embarks on the conquest of France.
83. The Ox-Bow Incident
Directed by William A. Wellman | 75 min | 1943
When a posse catches up three men suspected of killing a local farmer, some of them become strongly divided on whether or not to lynch the men.
84. In Which We Serve
Directed by Noël Coward, David Lean | 115 min | 1942
This "story of a ship," the British destroyer HMS Torrin, is told in flash backs by survivors as they cling to a life raft.
85. Citizen Kane
Directed by Orson Welles | 119 min | 1941
Following the death of a publishing tycoon, news reporters scramble to discover the meaning of his final utterance.
86. The Grapes of Wrath
Directed by John Ford | 129 min | 1940
A poor Midwest family is forced off of their land. They travel to California, suffering the misfortunes of the homeless in the Great Depression.
87. Confessions of a Nazi Spy
Directed by Anatole Litvak | 104 min | 1939
FBI agent Ed Renard investigates the pre-War espionage activities of the German-American Bund.
88. The Citadel
Directed by King Vidor | 110 min | 1938
Andrew Manson, a young, enthusiastic doctor takes his first job in a Welsh mining town, and begins to wonder at the persistent cough many of the miners have. When his attempts to prove its ...
89. Night Must Fall
Directed by Richard Thorpe | 116 min | 1937
When a rich but cantankerous dowager on an isolated estates hires an engaging handyman, her niece/companion becomes suspicious of his motives.
90. Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
Directed by Frank Capra | 115 min | 1936
Longfellow Deeds, a simple-hearted Vermont tuba player, inherits a fortune and has to contend with opportunist city slickers.
91. The Informer
Directed by John Ford | 91 min | 1935
In 1922, an Irish rebel informs on his friend, then feels doom closing in.
92. It Happened One Night
Directed by Frank Capra | 105 min | 1934
A spoiled heiress, running away from her family, is helped by a man who is actually a reporter in need of a story.
93. Topaze
Directed by Harry d'Abbadie d'Arrast | 78 min | 1933
An honest and naive schoolteacher gets a lesson in how the world works outside the classroom, when a rich Baron and his mistress use the teacher's name and outstanding reputation in a ...
94. I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang
Directed by Mervyn LeRoy | 92 min | 1932
Wrongly convicted James Allen serves in the intolerable conditions of a southern chain gang, which later comes back to haunt him.