National Board of Review awards move to January 2021

The National Board of Review, usually the first awards body to hand out film accolades, has picked up from its usual late November slot and will now happen January 26, 2021. This new date will reflect the same extended eligibility as the Academy Awards, Golden Globes and others in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.

In a statement, the NBR extended its eligibility period saying: “Films will be eligible if screened by the NBR and released either theatrically or digitally on or before Feb. 28, 2021. If a movie’s release is digital, it must have had a theatrical release planned prior to the onset of COVID-19.”

“This moment in time has only further proven the importance of cinema. A well-told story has unmatched power to bring us all together, no matter how physically far we are from one another,” said Annie Schulhof, President of the National Board of Review. “We look forward to honoring the best films and performances of 2020, a highly unusual year that is nevertheless poised to provide unique and outstanding achievements in cinema.”

2020/2021 Awards Calendar

The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures was founded in 1909 and began handing out film awards in 1930 and is the oldest organization to do so. The rather secretive group is made up of over 250 film historians, enthusiasts, filmmakers, professionals and academics.

Last year they awarded The Irishman Best Picture and Parasite Best Foreign Film. Both were nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars with Parasite winning.

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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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