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. [1]
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| Year | Winner | Director(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 1980 | Ordinary People † | Robert Redford |
| 1981 | Chariots of Fire † | Hugh Hudson |
| Reds ‡ | Warren Beatty | |
| 1982 | Gandhi † | Richard Attenborough |
| 1983 | Betrayal § | David Jones |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 [2] |
| 2019 | The Irishman ‡ | Martin Scorsese [3] |
| Year | Winner | Director(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Da 5 Bloods [4] § | Spike Lee |
| 2021 | Licorice Pizza ‡ [5] | Paul Thomas Anderson |
| 2022 | Top Gun: Maverick ‡ [6] | Joseph Kosinski |
| 2023 | Killers of the Flower Moon ‡ [7] | Martin Scorsese |
| 2024 | Wicked ‡ [8] | Jon M. Chu |