National Board of Review

National Board of Review

Together with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science and the New York Critics Circle, the National Board of Review is one of the three major award organizations in the United States.

It consists of some 175 public-spirited men and women with an interest in motion pictures and a mature sense of social responsibility. It was the first and is still the foremost public organization devoted to the movies as an entertainment, an art and a social force.

The National Board of Review was the first body to present ‘ten best lists’, a practice it began in 1930 and continues to this day. It is invariably the first to announce the best movie achievements of the calendar year and presents ten best selections of both English and Foreign Language pictures, as well as acting and direction awards.

Like the prizes of the New York Critics, the awards are made by men and women with critical experience and flair and are often a point to the Oscar winners announced every April.

Joint acting awards were introduced in 1937, individual acting and direction awards in 1945 and prizes for supporting acting in 1954. During the war and post-war years the Board abandoned its policy of distinguishing between documentary and fiction films and combined them in its ten best lists. Towards the end of the war and for a few years after it, the Board did not use separate categories for American and Foreign Language Films.

In 1979 the awards were named for the first time and presented as the David Wark Griffith Awards. The first presentations were made at Luchow’s (across the street from Griffith’s original Biograph Studio) on February 10, 1980.