The National Board of Review announced its honorees for 2017 and “The Post,” “Get Out” and distributor A24 were the big winners of the day.
Steven Spielberg’s “The Post” took three honors including Best Picture, Best Actress (Meryl Streep) and Best Actor (Tom Hanks). “Get Out” won Best Ensemble while director Jordan Peele took Breakthrough Director. Outside of “The Post,” the biggest winner of the day wasn’t one particular film, but one particular distributor.
A24 has always done well with the NBR and it’s not a bad card to have when you have good movies. In fact, in a surprise, “A Most Violent Year” won their Best Picture honor in 2014. But this year A24 took Best Director (Greta Gerwig, “Lady Bird”), Best Adapted Screenplay (“The Disaster Artist”), Best Supporting Actor (Willem Dafoe, “The Florida Project”) and Best Supporting Actress (Laurie Metcalf, “Lady Bird”). The studio also had three film’s on the organization’s top 10 list (“Lady Bird,” “The Florida Project” and “The Disaster Artist”), more than any other studio (in theory 20th Century Fox had two in top 11 with “Logan” and “The Post”). That doesn’t even count their two entries on the Independent Film Top 10 list (“Menashe,” “A Ghost Story”).
The biggest loser of the day had to be Fox Searchlight. The studio’s critically acclaimed films “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” and “The Shape of Water” didn’t even make the top 10 films list while less favored releases such as “Disaster Artist,” “Logan” and “Downsizing” did (the later a huge win for Paramount, by the way). “Patti Cake$” made the indie list, but Searchlight has to be scratching their head over the results. Especially with “Shape” getting snubbed at the Spirit Awards nominations last week.
Other major snubs include Amazon Studios’ indie hit “The Big Sick,” Dee Rees’ “Mudbound” and Joe Wright’s “The Darkest Hour.”
Paul Tomas Anderson’s “Phantom Thread” won Best Original Screenplay which was a huge surprise, but writing why would likely break the embargo on such things.
Here is a complete list of this year’s winners.
Best Picture: “The Post”
Top Ten Films: “Baby Driver,” “Call Me By Your Name,” “The Disaster Artist,” “Downsizing,” “Dunkirk,” “The Florida Project,””Get Out,” “Lady Bird,” “Logan,” “Phantom Thread”
Best Director: Greta Gerwig, “Lady Bird”
Best Actress: Meryl Streep, “The Post”
Best Actor: Tom Hanks, “The Post”
Best Original Screenplay: “Phantom Thread,” Paul Thomas Anderson
Best Adapted Screenplay: “The Disaster Artist,” Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Webber
Best Documentary: “Jane”
Top Five Documentaries: “Bacus: Small Enough To Jail,” “Brimstone & Glory,””Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars,” “Faces Places,” “Hell on Earth: The Fall of Syria and the Rise of Isis”
Best Supporting Actor: Willem Dafoe, “The Florida Project”
Best Supporting Actress: Laurie Metcalf, “Lady Bird”
Best Ensemble: “Get Out”
NBR’s Top Ten Independent Films of 2017 (in alphabetical order): “Beatriz at Dinner,” “Brigsby Bear,” “A Ghost Story,” “Lady Macbeth,” “Logan Lucky,” “Loving Vincent,” “Menashe,” “Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer,” “Patti Cake$,” “Wind River”
Best Animated Feature: “Coco”
Freedom of Expression Award: “Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992” directed by John Ridley and “First They Killed My Father” by Angelina Jolie
Best Foreign Language Film: “Foxtrot”
Top Five Foreign Language Films: “A Fantastic Woman,” “Frantz,” “Loveless,” “Summer 1993,” “The Square”
Spotlight Award: Patty Jenkins and Gal Gadot for “Wonder Woman”
Breakthrough Performance: Timothée Chalamet, “Call Me By Your Name”