The prize for best film of the year at the National Board of Review Awards went to “Top Gun: Maverick.” Martin McDonagh’s “The Banshees of Inisherin” took home the most trophies. But the night belonged to its best-director honoree, Steven Spielberg, and the parade of tributes paid to the 76-year-old filmmaker.
The prize for best film of the year at the National Board of Review Awards went to “Top Gun: Maverick.” Martin McDonagh’s “The Banshees of Inisherin” took home the most trophies. But the night belonged to its best-director honoree, Steven Spielberg, and the parade of tributes paid to the 76-year-old filmmaker.
So effusive was the praise for Spielberg that Colin Farrell, there to accept the award for best actor for his performance in “The Banshees of Inisherin,” said the experience of first watching “E.T.” was the most euphoric of his life, ranking it even above the births of his two children.
“I’m glad this isn’t televised,” said Farrell.
Despite the lack of a broadcast from Cipriani’s 42 Street in midtown Manhattan, the National Board of Review Awards have long been a regular and starry stop in Hollywood’s awards season. This year’s ceremony, hosted Sunday for the seventh time by Willie Geist, came right in the thick of a battery of big dates on the Oscar calendar. The Golden Globes are Tuesday, the Screen Actor Guild nominations are Wednesday and voting for the Academy Awards starts Thursday.
That meant that the NBR Awards, put on by a long-running group of film enthusiasts, was a chance to stoke buzz and polish acceptance speeches. The National Board of Review makes it easier, too, by announcing winners in advance and pairing each with a lavish introduction from a collaborator or friend. Spielberg, who won best director for his movie-memoir “The Fabelmans,” was introduced by “West Side Story” star Ariana DeBose.
DeBose recalled being in a nail salon when “Steven (expletive) Spielberg” called to ask if she would join the cast.
“What I remember most about that moment, aside from the experience of realizing that blood was rushing to my head and to my feet simultaneously, was thinking: Wow, what a gentlemanly, respectful, generous call that that was to make,” DeBose said.
