National Board of Review: Top Ten Films

The following is a list of the Top 10 Films chosen annually by the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures, beginning in 1929.[1]

History

From 1930 till 2018, 74 times the NBR chose the film that would go on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture as Best Film. Twenty four of these times, the film selected was number one on the NBR's list for that year.

Lists

1930s

1930: All Quiet on the Western Front Holiday Laughter The Man from Blankley's Men Without Women Morocco Outward Bound Romance Street of Chance Tol'able David

1931: Cimarron City Lights City Streets Dishonored The Front Page The Guardsman Quick Millions Rango Surrender Tabu

1932: I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang As You Desire Me A Bill of Divorcement A Farewell to Arms Madame Racketeer Payment Deferred Scarface Tarzan the Ape Man Trouble in Paradise Two Seconds

1933: Topaze Berkeley Square Cavalcade Little Women Mama Loves Papa The Pied Piper She Done Him Wrong State Fair Three-Cornered Moon Zoo in Budapest

1934: It Happened One Night The Count of Monte Cristo Crime Without Passion Eskimo The First World War The Lost Patrol Lot in Sodom No Greater Glory The Thin Man Viva Villa!

1935: The Informer Alice Adams Anna Karenina David Copperfield The Gilded Lily Les Misérables The Lives of a Bengal Lancer Mutiny on the Bounty Ruggles of Red Gap Who Killed Cock Robin?

1936: Mr. Deeds Goes to Town The Story of Louis Pasteur Modern Times Fury Winterset The Devil Is a Sissy Ceiling Zero Romeo and Juliet The Prisoner of Shark Island Green Pastures

1937: Night Must Fall The Life of Emile Zola Black Legion Camille Make Way for Tomorrow The Good Earth They Won't Forget Captains Courageous A Star Is Born Stage Door

1938: The Citadel Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs The Beachcomber To the Victor Sing You Sinners The Edge of the World Of Human Hearts Jezebel South Riding Three Comrades

1939: Confessions of a Nazi Spy Wuthering Heights Stagecoach Ninotchka Young Mr. Lincoln Crisis Goodbye, Mr. Chips Mr. Smith Goes to Washington The Roaring Twenties U-Boat 29

1940s

1940: The Grapes of Wrath The Great Dictator Of Mice and Men Our Town Fantasia The Long Voyage Home Foreign Correspondent The Biscuit Eater Gone with the Wind Rebecca

1941: Citizen Kane How Green Was My Valley The Little Foxes The Stars Look Down Dumbo High Sierra Here Comes Mr. Jordan Tom, Dick and Harry Road to Zanzibar The Lady Eve

1942: In Which We Serve One of Our Aircraft Is Missing Mrs. Miniver Journey for Margaret Wake Island The Male Animal The Major and the Minor Sullivan's Travels The Moon and Sixpence The Pied Piper

1943: The Ox-Bow Incident Watch on the Rhine Air Force Holy Matrimony The Hard Way Casablanca Lassie Come Home Bataan The Moon Is Down The Next of Kin

1944: None But the Lonely Heart Going My Way The Miracle of Morgan's Creek Hail the Conquering Hero The Song of Bernadette Wilson Meet Me in St. Louis Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo Thunder Rock Lifeboat

1945: The True Glory The Lost Weekend The Southerner The Story of G.I. Joe The Last Chance The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp A Tree Grows In Brooklyn The Fighting Lady The Way Ahead The Clock

1946: Henry V Rome, Open City The Best Years of Our Lives Brief Encounter A Walk in the Sun It Happened at the Inn My Darling Clementine The Diary of a Chambermaid The Killers Anna and the King of Siam

1947: Monsieur Verdoux Great Expectations Shoeshine Crossfire Boomerang! Odd Man Out Gentleman's Agreement To Live in Peace It's a Wonderful Life The Overlanders

1948: Paisan Day of Wrath The Search The Treasure of the Sierra Madre Louisiana Story Hamlet The Snake Pit Johnny Belinda Joan of Arc The Red Shoes

1949: The Bicycle Thief The Quiet One Intruder in the Dust The Heiress Devil in the Flesh Quartet Germany, Year Zero Home of the Brave A Letter to Three Wives The Fallen Idol

1950s

1950: Sunset Boulevard All About Eve The Asphalt Jungle The Men Edge of Doom Twelve O'Clock High Panic in the Streets Cyrano de Bergerac No Way Out Stage Fright

1951: A Place in the Sun The Red Badge of Courage An American in Paris Death of a Salesman Detective Story A Streetcar Named Desire Decision Before Dawn Strangers on a Train Quo Vadis Fourteen Hours

1952: The Quiet Man High Noon Limelight 5 Fingers The Snows of Kilimanjaro The Thief The Bad and the Beautiful Singin' in the Rain Above and Beyond My Son John

1953: Julius Caesar Shane From Here to Eternity Martin Luther Lili Roman Holiday Stalag 17 Little Fugitive Mogambo The Robe

1954: On the Waterfront Seven Brides for Seven Brothers The Country Girl A Star Is Born Executive Suite The Vanishing Prairie Sabrina 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea The Unconquered Beat the Devil

1955: Marty East of Eden Mister Roberts Bad Day at Black Rock Summertime The Rose Tattoo A Man Called Peter Not as a Stranger Picnic The African Lion

1956: Around the World in 80 Days Moby Dick The King and I Lust for Life Friendly Persuasion Somebody Up There Likes Me The Catered Affair Anastasia The Man Who Never Was Bus Stop

1957: The Bridge on the River Kwai 12 Angry Men The Spirit of St. Louis The Rising of the Moon Albert Schweitzer Funny Face The Bachelor Party The Enemy Below A Hatful of Rain A Farewell to Arms

1958: The Old Man and the Sea Separate Tables The Last Hurrah The Long, Hot Summer Windjammer Cat on a Hot Tin Roof The Goddess The Brothers Karamazov Me and the Colonel Gigi

1959: The Nun's Story Ben-Hur Anatomy of a Murder The Diary of Anne Frank Middle of the Night The Man Who Understood Women Some Like It Hot Suddenly, Last Summer On the Beach North by Northwest

1960s

1960: Sons and Lovers The Alamo The Sundowners Inherit the Wind Sunrise at Campobello Elmer Gantry Home from the Hill The Apartment Wild River The Dark at the Top of the Stairs

1961: Question 7 The Hustler West Side Story The Innocents The Hoodlum Priest Summer and Smoke The Young Doctors Judgment at Nuremberg One, Two, Three Fanny

1962: The Longest Day Billy Budd The Miracle Worker Lawrence of Arabia Long Day's Journey into Night Whistle Down the Wind Requiem for a Heavyweight A Taste of Honey Birdman of Alcatraz War Hunt

1963: Tom Jones Lilies of the Field All the Way Home Hud This Sporting Life Lord of the Flies The L-Shaped Room The Great Escape How the West Was Won The Cardinal

1964: Becket My Fair Lady Girl with Green Eyes The World of Henry Orient Zorba the Greek Topkapi The Chalk Garden The Finest Hours Four Days in November Séance on a Wet Afternoon

1965: The Eleanor Roosevelt Story The Agony and the Ecstasy Doctor Zhivago Ship of Fools The Spy Who Came in From the Cold Darling The Greatest Story Ever Told A Thousand Clowns The Train The Sound of Music

1966: A Man for All Seasons Born Free Alfie Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? The Bible: In the Beginning... Georgy Girl John F. Kennedy: Years of Lightning, Day of Drums It Happened Here The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming Shakespeare Wallah

1967: Far from the Madding Crowd The Whisperers Ulysses In Cold Blood The Family Way The Taming of the Shrew Doctor Dolittle The Graduate The Comedians Accident

1968: The Shoes of the Fisherman Romeo and Juliet Yellow Submarine Charly Rachel, Rachel The Subject Was Roses The Lion in Winter Planet of the Apes Oliver! 2001: A Space Odyssey

1969: They Shoot Horses, Don't They? Ring of Bright Water Topaz Goodbye, Mr. Chips Battle of Britain Isadora The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Support Your Local Sheriff! True Grit Midnight Cowboy

1970s

1970: Patton Kes Women in Love Five Easy Pieces Ryan's Daughter I Never Sang for My Father Diary of a Mad Housewife Love Story The Virgin and the Gypsy Tora! Tora! Tora!

1971: Macbeth The Boy Friend One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich The French Connection The Last Picture Show Nicholas and Alexandra The Go-Between King Lear The Tales of Beatrix Potter Death in Venice

1972: Cabaret Man of La Mancha The Godfather Sounder 1776 The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds Deliverance The Ruling Class The Candidate Frenzy

1973: The Sting Paper Moon Bang the Drum Slowly Serpico O Lucky Man! The Last American Hero The Hireling The Day of the Dolphin The Way We Were The Homecoming

1974: The Conversation Murder on the Orient Express Chinatown The Last Detail Harry and Tonto A Woman Under the Influence Thieves Like Us Lenny Daisy Miller The Three Musketeers

1975: Nashville / Barry Lyndon Conduct Unbecoming One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Lies My Father Told Me Dog Day Afternoon The Day of the Locust The Passenger Hearts of the West Farewell, My Lovely Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore

1976: All the President's Men Network Rocky The Last Tycoon The Seven-Per-Cent Solution The Front The Shootist Family Plot Silent Movie Obsession

1977: The Turning Point Annie Hall Julia Star Wars Close Encounters of the Third Kind The Late Show Saturday Night Fever Equus The Picture Show Man Harlan County, USA

1978: Days of Heaven Coming Home Interiors Superman Movie Movie Midnight Express An Unmarried Woman Pretty Baby Girlfriends Comes a Horseman

1979: Manhattan Yanks The Europeans The China Syndrome Breaking Away Apocalypse Now Being There Time After Time North Dallas Forty Kramer vs. Kramer

1980s

1980: Ordinary People Raging Bull Coal Miner's Daughter Tess Melvin and Howard The Great Santini The Elephant Man The Stunt Man My Bodyguard Resurrection

1981: Chariots of Fire / Reds Atlantic City Stevie Gallipoli On Golden Pond Prince of the City Raiders of the Lost Ark Heartland Ticket to Heaven Breaker Morant

1982: Gandhi The Verdict Sophie's Choice An Officer and a Gentleman Missing E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial The World According to Garp Tootsie Moonlighting The Chosen

1983: Betrayal / Terms of Endearment Educating Rita Tender Mercies The Dresser The Right Stuff Testament Local Hero The Big Chill Cross Creek Yentl

1984: A Passage to India Paris, Texas The Killing Fields Places in the Heart Mass Appeal Country A Soldier's Story Birdy Careful, He Might Hear You Under the Volcano

1985: The Color Purple Out of Africa The Trip to Bountiful Witness Kiss of the Spider Woman Prizzi's Honor Back to the Future The Shooting Party Blood Simple Dreamchild

1986: A Room with a View Hannah and Her Sisters My Beautiful Laundrette The Fly Stand By Me The Color of Money Children of a Lesser God Round Midnight Peggy Sue Got Married The Mission

1987: Empire of the Sun The Last Emperor Broadcast News The Untouchables Gaby: A True Story Cry Freedom Fatal Attraction Hope and Glory Wall Street Full Metal Jacket

1988: Mississippi Burning Dangerous Liaisons The Accused The Unbearable Lightness of Being The Last Temptation of Christ Tucker: The Man and His Dream Big Running on Empty Gorillas in the Mist Midnight Run

1989: Driving Miss Daisy Henry V Sex, Lies, and Videotape The Fabulous Baker Boys My Left Foot Dead Poets Society Crimes and Misdemeanors Born on the Fourth of July Glory Field of Dreams

1990s

1990: Dances with Wolves Hamlet Goodfellas Awakenings Reversal of Fortune Miller's Crossing Metropolitan Mr. and Mrs. Bridge Avalon The Grifters

1991: The Silence of the Lambs Bugsy Grand Canyon Thelma & Louise Homicide Dead Again Boyz n the Hood Rambling Rose Frankie and Johnny Jungle Fever

1992: Howards End The Crying Game Glengarry Glen Ross A Few Good Men The Player Unforgiven One False Move Peter's Friends Bob Roberts Malcolm X

1993: Schindler's List The Age of Innocence The Remains of the Day The Piano Shadowlands In the Name of the Father Philadelphia Much Ado About Nothing Short Cuts The Joy Luck Club

1994: Forrest Gump / Pulp Fiction Quiz Show Four Weddings and a Funeral Bullets over Broadway Ed Wood The Shawshank Redemption Nobody's Fool The Madness of King George Tom & Viv Heavenly Creatures

1995: Sense and Sensibility Apollo 13 Carrington Leaving Las Vegas The American President Mighty Aphrodite Smoke Persuasion Braveheart The Usual Suspects

1996: Shine The English Patient Fargo Secrets & Lies Everyone Says I Love You Evita Sling Blade Trainspotting Breaking the Waves Jerry Maguire

1997: L.A. Confidential As Good as It Gets The Wings of the Dove Good Will Hunting Titanic The Sweet Hereafter Boogie Nights The Full Monty The Rainmaker Jackie Brown

1998: Gods and Monsters Saving Private Ryan Elizabeth Happiness Shakespeare in Love The Butcher Boy Lolita The Thin Red Line A Simple Plan Dancing at Lughnasa

1999: American Beauty The Talented Mr. Ripley Magnolia The Insider The Straight Story Cradle Will Rock Boys Don't Cry Being John Malkovich Tumbleweeds Three Kings

2000s

2000: Quills Traffic Croupier You Can Count On Me Billy Elliot Before Night Falls Gladiator Wonder Boys Sunshine Dancer in the Dark

2001: Moulin Rouge! In the Bedroom Ocean's Eleven Memento Monster's Ball Black Hawk Down The Man Who Wasn't There A.I. Artificial Intelligence The Pledge Mulholland Drive

2002: The Hours Chicago Gangs of New York The Quiet American Adaptation. Rabbit-Proof Fence The Pianist Far from Heaven Thirteen Conversations About One Thing Frida

2003: Mystic River The Last Samurai The Station Agent 21 Grams House of Sand and Fog Lost in Translation Cold Mountain In America Seabiscuit Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

2004: Finding Neverland The Aviator Closer Million Dollar Baby Sideways Kinsey Vera Drake Ray Collateral Hotel Rwanda

2005: (in alphabetical order, except for 1) Good Night, and Good Luck. Brokeback Mountain Capote Crash A History of Violence Match Point Memoirs of a Geisha Munich Syriana Walk the Line

2006: (in alphabetical order, except for 1) Letters from Iwo Jima Babel Blood Diamond The Departed The Devil Wears Prada Flags of Our Fathers The History Boys Little Miss Sunshine Notes on a Scandal The Painted Veil

2007: (in alphabetical order, except for 1) No Country for Old Men The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford The Bourne Ultimatum The Bucket List Into the Wild Juno The Kite Runner Lars and the Real Girl Michael Clayton Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

2008: (in alphabetical order, except for 1) Slumdog Millionaire Burn After Reading Changeling The Curious Case of Benjamin Button The Dark Knight Defiance Frost/Nixon Gran Torino Milk WALL-E The Wrestler

2009: (in alphabetical order, except for 1) Up in the Air (500) Days of Summer An Education The Hurt Locker Inglourious Basterds Invictus The Messenger A Serious Man Star Trek Up Where the Wild Things Are

2010s

2010: (in alphabetical order, except for 1) The Social Network Another Year The Fighter Hereafter Inception The King's Speech Shutter Island The Town Toy Story 3 True Grit Winter's Bone

2011: (in alphabetical order, except for 1) Hugo The Artist The Descendants Drive The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 The Ides of March J. Edgar The Tree of Life War Horse

2012: (in alphabetical order, except for 1) Zero Dark Thirty Argo Beasts of the Southern Wild Django Unchained Les Misérables Lincoln Looper The Perks of Being a Wallflower Promised Land Silver Linings Playbook

2013: (in alphabetical order, except for 1) Her 12 Years a Slave Fruitvale Station Gravity Inside Llewyn Davis Lone Survivor Nebraska Prisoners Saving Mr. Banks The Secret Life of Walter Mitty The Wolf of Wall Street

2014: (in alphabetical order, except for 1) A Most Violent Year[2] American Sniper Birdman Boyhood Fury Gone Girl The Imitation Game Inherent Vice The LEGO Movie Nightcrawler Unbroken

2015: (in alphabetical order, except for 1) Mad Max: Fury Road Bridge of Spies Creed The Hateful Eight Inside Out The Martian Room Sicario Spotlight Straight Outta Compton

2016: (in alphabetical order, except for 1) Manchester by the Sea Arrival Hacksaw Ridge Hail, Caesar! Hell or High Water Hidden Figures La La Land Moonlight Patriots Day Silence Sully

2017: (in alphabetical order, except for 1) The Post [3] Baby Driver Call Me by Your Name The Disaster Artist Downsizing Dunkirk The Florida Project Get Out Lady Bird Logan Phantom Thread

2018: (in alphabetical order, except for 1) Green Book [4] The Ballad of Buster Scruggs Black Panther Can You Ever Forgive Me? Eighth Grade First Reformed If Beale Street Could Talk Mary Poppins Returns A Quiet Place Roma A Star Is Born

2019: (in alphabetical order, except for 1) The Irishman [5] 1917 Dolemite Is My Name Ford v Ferrari Jojo Rabbit Knives Out Marriage Story Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Richard Jewell Uncut Gems Waves

2020s

2020: (in alphabetical order, except for 1) Da 5 Bloods First Cow The Forty-Year-Old Version Judas and the Black Messiah The Midnight Sky Minari News of the World Nomadland Promising Young Woman Soul Sound of Metal

References

1. Top Films Archives - National Film Board of Review
2. National Board Of Review Names 'A Most Violent Year' Best Film Of 2014 Plus Full List Of Awards|The Payllist
3. National Board Of Review names The Post as best movie of the year|AV Club
4. National Board Of Review Names ‘Green Book’ Best Picture; ‘A Star Is Born’s Bradley Cooper As Best Director - Deadline
5. 'The Irishman' Tops National Board of Review 2019 Honorees: Full List|Hollywood Reporter