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 (Paisà) | Roberto Rossellini | |
| 1949 | Bicycle Thieves (Ladri di biciclette) | 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 | ‡ | 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 | ‡ [6] | Joseph Kosinski |
| 2023 | Killers of the Flower Moon ‡ [7] | Martin Scorsese |