National Board of Review 2020 Winners: ‘Da 5 Bloods,’ Riz Ahmed, and Carey Mulligan Take Top Honors
The National Board of Review (NBR) is often one of the first groups to announce its picks for the best films and performances of the year, but the 2020-21 awards season is a season like no other. At this point in the awards season, the Gotham Awards have already declared “Nomadland” the best film of the year, while the NYFCC went with “First Cow” and LAFCA chose Steve McQueen’s “Small Axe” anthology series. The NBR went with ‘Da 5 Bloods’ for 2021. The organization is made up of a group of film enthusiasts, industry professionals, academics, and filmmakers.
Last year, the National Board of Review honored Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman” with its top prize for Best Film. The gangster drama went on to score 10 Academy Award nominations. Nearly every NBR winner for Best Film this decade has earned an Oscar nomination for Best Picture, including “The Post,” “Manchester by the Sea,” and “Mad Max: Fury Road.” NBR’s 2019 winner “Green Book” won the Best Picture Oscar.
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Other 2019 NBR winners included Adam Sandler for Best Actor (“Uncut Gems”), Renee Zellweger for Best Actress (“Judy”), Brad Pitt for Best Supporting Actor (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”), and Kathy Bates for Best Supporting Actress (“Richard Jewell”). Pitt and Zellweger went on to win Oscars in their respective categories.
The full list of 2020 National Board of Review winners is below.
Best Film: DA 5 BLOODS
Best Director: Spike Lee, DA 5 BLOODS
Best Actor: Riz Ahmed, SOUND OF METAL
Best Actress: Carey Mulligan, PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN
Best Supporting Actor: Paul Raci, SOUND OF METAL
Best Supporting Actress: Youn Yuh-jung, MINARI
Best Adapted Screenplay: Paul Greengrass & Luke Davies, NEWS OF THE WORLD
Best Original Screenplay: Lee Isaac Chung, MINARI
Breakthrough Performance: Sidney Flanigan, NEVER RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS
Best Directorial Debut: Channing Godfrey Peoples, MISS JUNETEENTH
Best Animated Feature: SOUL
Best Foreign Language Film: LA LLORONA
Best Documentary: TIME
NBR Icon Award: Chadwick Boseman
NBR Freedom of Expression Award: ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI
NBR Spotlight Award: Radha Blank for writing, directing, producing and starring in THE FORTY-YEAR-OLD VERSION
Best Ensemble: DA 5 BLOODS
Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography: Joshua James Richards, NOMADLAND
Top Films (in alphabetical order):
First Cow
The Forty-Year-Old Version
Judas and the Black Messiah
The Midnight Sky
Minari
News of the World
Nomadland
Promising Young Woman
Soul
Sound of Metal
Top 5 Foreign Language Films (in alphabetical order):
Apples
Collective
Dear Comrades
The Mole Agent
Night of the Kings
Top 5 Documentaries (in alphabetical order):
All In: The Fight for Democracy
Boys State
Dick Johnson is Dead
Miss Americana
The Truffle Hunters
Top 10 Independent Films (in alphabetical order):
The Climb
Driveways
Farewell Amor
Miss Juneteenth
The Nest
Never Rarely Sometimes Always
The Outpost
Relic
Saint Frances
Wolfwalkers
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