# 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
* § = Not 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 |
| 1975 | 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 |
| 1981 | Reds ‡ | Warren Beatty |
| 1982 | Gandhi † | Richard Attenborough |
| 1983 | Betrayal § | David Jones |
| 1983 | 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 |
| 1994 | 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 |

## Multiple winners (3 or more)

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