2016 National Board of Review (NBR) Winners: Manchester by the Sea is Best Film, Amy Adams Wins Best Actress for Arrival

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The National Board of Review, the oldest awards-giving organization in existence, has chosen Kenneth Lonergan’s Manchester by the Sea as the best film of 2016. The New England-based drama also won awards for director Lonergan’s screenplay and acting wins for Casey Affleck in Best Actor and Lucas Hedges in Breakthrough Performance (Male). Last year’s winner was Mad Max: Fury Road and in 2014 it was A Most Violent Year. The former earned 10 Oscar nominations and six wins and the latter was snubbed entirely. The top 10 films include: Arrival, La La Land, Moonlight and Patriots Day.

Other acting wins went to Amy Adams in Arrival (Best Actress), Naomie Harris in Moonlight (Best Supporting Actress) and Jeff Bridges (Hell or High Water). Only one Supporting Actor winner here (Will Forte for Nebraska) has missed out on an Oscar nomination in the last fifteen years. In Best Supporting Actress it’s a little dicey – Jennifer Jason Leigh (The Hateful Eight) broke a four-year curse of winners here being snubbed at Oscar.

Another win for Moonlight went to Barry Jenkins for Best Director. Silence, one of the last films screened this season, earned a win in Adapted Screenplay (Scorsese’s first co-writing credit in over 20 years) and Top 10 mention. Hidden Figures received two accolades; Best Ensemble and a Top 10 mention. Kubo and the Two Strings was chosen as the Best Animated Feature.

Here is the full list of winners:

Best Film: Manchester by the Sea
Best Director: Barry Jenkins, Moonlight
Best Actor: Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea
Best Actress: Amy Adams, Arrival
Best Supporting Actor: Jeff Bridges, Hell or High Water
Best Supporting Actress: Naomie Harris, Moonlight
Best Original Screenplay: Kenneth Lonergan, Manchester by the Sea
Best Adapted Screenplay: Jay Cocks and Martin Scorsese, Silence
Best Animated Feature: Kubo and the Two Strings
Breakthrough Performance (Male): Lucas Hedges, Manchester by the Sea
Breakthrough Performance (Female): Royalty Hightower, The Fits
Best Directorial Debut: Trey Edward Shults, Krisha
Best Foreign Language Film: The Salesman
Best Documentary: O.J.: Made in America
Best Ensemble: Hidden Figures
Spotlight Award: Creative Collaboration of Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg
NBR Freedom of Expression Award: Cameraperson

Top 10 Films
Arrival
Hacksaw Ridge
Hail, Caesar!
Hell or High Water
Hidden Figures
La La Land
Moonlight
Patriots Day
Silence
Sully

Top 5 Foreign Language Films
Elle
The Handmaiden
Julieta
Land of Mine
Neruda

Top 5 Documentaries
De Palma
The Eagle Huntress
Gleason
Life, Animated
Miss Sharon Jones!

Top 10 Independent Films
20th Century Women
Captain Fantastic
Creative Control
Eye in the Sky
The Fits
Green Room
Hello, My Name is Doris
Krisha
Morris from America
Sing Street

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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