National Board of Review Award for Best Film

The National Board of Review Award for Best Film is one of the annual awards given since 1932 by the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures.

Winners

• † = Winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture
• ‡ = Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture

1930s

Year	Winner	Director(s)
1932	I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang ‡	Mervyn LeRoy
1933	Topaze	Harry d'Abbadie d'Arrast
1934	It Happened One Night †	Frank Capra
1935	The Informer ‡	John Ford
1936	Mr. Deeds Goes to Town ‡	Frank Capra
1937	Night Must Fall	Richard Thorpe
1938	The Citadel ‡	King Vidor
1939	Confessions of a Nazi Spy	Anatole Litvak

1940s

Year	Winner	Director(s)
1940	The Grapes of Wrath ‡	John Ford
1941	Citizen Kane ‡	Orson Welles
1942	In Which We Serve ‡	Noël Coward and David Lean
1943	The Ox-Bow Incident ‡	William A. Wellman
1944	None But the Lonely Heart	Clifford Odets
1945	The True Glory §	Carol Reed
1946	Henry V ‡	Laurence Olivier
1947	Monsieur Verdoux	Charlie Chaplin
1948	Paisan	Roberto Rossellini
1949	Bicycle Thieves	Vittorio De Sica

1950s

Year	Winner	Director(s)
1950	Sunset Boulevard ‡	Billy Wilder
1951	A Place in the Sun ‡	George Stevens
1952	The Quiet Man ‡	John Ford
1953	Julius Caesar ‡	Joseph L. Mankiewicz
1954	On the Waterfront †	Elia Kazan
1955	Marty †	Delbert Mann
1956	Around the World in 80 Days †	Michael Anderson
1957	The Bridge on the River Kwai †	David Lean
1958	The Old Man and the Sea	John Sturges
1959	The Nun's Story ‡	Fred Zinnemann

1960s

Year	Winner	Director(s)
1960	Sons and Lovers ‡	Jack Cardiff
1961	Question 7	Stuart Rosenberg
1962	The Longest Day ‡	Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, Gerd Oswald, and Bernhard Wicki
1963	Tom Jones †	Tony Richardson
1964	Becket ‡	Peter Glenville
1965	The Eleanor Roosevelt Story	Rick Kaplan
1966	A Man for All Seasons †	Fred Zinnemann
1967	Far from the Madding Crowd	John Schlesinger
1968	The Shoes of the Fisherman	Michael Anderson
1969	They Shoot Horses, Don't They?	Sydney Pollack

1970s

Year	Winner	Director(s)
1970	Patton †	Franklin J. Schaffner
1971	Macbeth	Roman Polanski
1972	Cabaret ‡	Bob Fosse
1973	The Sting †	George Roy Hill
1974	The Conversation ‡	Francis Ford Coppola
1975	Barry Lyndon ‡	Stanley Kubrick
	Nashville ‡	Robert Altman
1976	All the President's Men ‡	Alan J. Pakula
1977	The Turning Point ‡	Herbert Ross
1978	Days of Heaven	Terrence Malick
1979	Manhattan	Woody Allen

1980s

Year	Winner	Director(s)
1980	Ordinary People †	Robert Redford
1981	Chariots of Fire †	Hugh Hudson
	Reds ‡	Warren Beatty
1982	Gandhi †	Richard Attenborough
1983	Betrayal	David Jones
	Terms of Endearment †	James L. Brooks
1984	A Passage to India ‡	David Lean
1985	The Color Purple ‡	Steven Spielberg
1986	A Room with a View ‡	James Ivory
1987	Empire of the Sun	Steven Spielberg
1988	Mississippi Burning ‡	Alan Parker
1989	Driving Miss Daisy †	Bruce Beresford

1990s

Year	Winner	Director(s)
1990	Dances with Wolves †	Kevin Costner
1991	The Silence of the Lambs †	Jonathan Demme
1992	Howards End ‡	James Ivory
1993	Schindler's List †	Steven Spielberg
1994	Forrest Gump †	Robert Zemeckis
	Pulp Fiction ‡	Quentin Tarantino
1995	Sense and Sensibility ‡	Ang Lee
1996	Shine ‡	Scott Hicks
1997	L.A. Confidential ‡	Curtis Hanson
1998	Gods and Monsters	Bill Condon
1999	American Beauty †	Sam Mendes

2000s

Year	Winner	Director(s)
2000	Quills	Philip Kaufman
2001	Moulin Rouge! ‡	Baz Luhrmann
2002	The Hours ‡	Stephen Daldry
2003	Mystic River ‡	Clint Eastwood
2004	Finding Neverland ‡	Marc Forster
2005	Good Night, and Good Luck. ‡	George Clooney
2006	Letters from Iwo Jima ‡	Clint Eastwood
2007	No Country for Old Men †	Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
2008	Slumdog Millionaire †	Danny Boyle
2009	Up in the Air ‡	Jason Reitman

2010s

Year	Winner	Director(s)
2010	The Social Network ‡	David Fincher
2011	Hugo ‡	Martin Scorsese
2012	Zero Dark Thirty ‡	Kathryn Bigelow
2013	Her ‡	Spike Jonze
2014	A Most Violent Year	J. C. Chandor
2015	Mad Max: Fury Road ‡	George Miller
2016	Manchester by the Sea ‡	Kenneth Lonergan
2017	The Post ‡	Steven Spielberg
2018	Green Book †	Peter Farrelly
2019	The Irishman ‡	Martin Scorsese

2020s

Year	Winner	Director(s)
2020	Da 5 Bloods	Spike Lee
2021	Licorice Pizza ‡	Paul Thomas Anderson
2022	Top Gun: Maverick ‡	Joseph Kosinski
2023	Killers of the Flower Moon ‡	Martin Scorsese
2024	Wicked ‡	Jon M. Chu
2025	One Battle After Another †	Paul Thomas Anderson

Multiple winners (3 or more)

• Steven Spielberg – 4
• John Ford – 3
• David Lean – 3 (one as co-director)
• Martin Scorsese – 3