Movie News After Dark
National Board of Reviews Picks its Favorites, Star Trek: Discovery Gets Boldly Diverse, and It’s Always Sunny in Westeros
The day’s top headlines in bite-size portions.
Awards season is officially in full-swing now that the National Board of Review has released their picks for the best films and performances of the year. Kenneth Lonergan’s Manchester by the Sea took the Best Film award, while Moonlight’s Barry Jenkins won Best Director. Casey Affleck continues his (controversial) march towards Oscar gold by winning Best Actor for his turn in Lonergan’s film, and Best Actress honors went to – duh – Amy Adams. But was it for Arrival or Nocturnal Animals? The former. And Supporting wins went to Jeff Bridges and Naomie Harris for Hell or High Water and Moonlight, respectively.
In terms of the year’s top films, NBR picked 10 diverse titles: Moonlight, Arrival, Hell or High Water, Mel Gibson’s Hacksaw Ridge, the Coen Brothers’ Hail! Caesar, Theodore Melfi’s Hidden Figures, Damien Chazelle’s La La Land, Peter Berg’s Patriots Day, Martin Scorsese’s Silence, and Clint Eastwood’s Sully. Iranian-French film The Salesman won Best Foreign Film and O.J.: Made in America won Best Documentary. A complete list of winners, including the year’s top foreign, documentary, and independent films, follows:
Best Film: Manchester By the Sea
Best Director: Barry Jenkins, Moonlight
Best Actor: Casey Affleck, Manchester By the Sea
Best Actress: Amy Adams, Arrival
Best Supporting Actor: Jeff Bridges, Hell or High Water
Best Supporting Actress: Naomie Harris, Moonlight
Best Original Screenplay: Kenneth Lonergan, Manchester By the Sea
Best Adapted Screenplay: Jay Cocks and Martin Scorsese, Silence
Best Animated Feature: Kubo and the Two Strings
Breakthrough Performance (Male): Lucas Hedges, Manchester By the Sea
Breakthrough Performance (Female): Royalty Hightower, The Fits
Best Directorial Debut: Trey Edward Shults, Krisha
Best Foreign Language Film: The Salesman
Best Documentary: O.J.: Made in America
Best Ensemble: Hidden Figures
Spotlight Award: Creative Collaboration of Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg
NBR Freedom of Expression Award: Cameraperson
Top Films
Arrival
Hacksaw Ridge
Hail, Caesar!
Hell or High Water
Hidden Figures
La La Land
Moonlight
Patriots Day
Silence
Sully
Top 5 Foreign Language Films
Elle
The Handmaiden
Julieta
Land of Mine
Neruda
Top 5 Documentaries
De Palma
The Eagle Huntress
Gleason
Life, Animated
Miss Sharon Jones!
Top 10 Independent Films
20th Century Women
Captain Fantastic
Creative Control
Eye in the Sky
The Fits
Green Room
Hello, My Name is Doris
Krisha
Morris from America
Sing Street
The cast of Star Trek: Discovery continues to come together, and in doing so it also continues to boldly go where no series in the franchise has ever gone before. Not only has Michelle Yeoh (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) been cast as Starship Shenzhou Captain Georgiou, making her the first Asian lead of a Star Trek series (George Takei’s Sulu is considered supporting), executive producer Bryan Fuller has also added a gay character, Lt. Stamets, to be played by Anthony Rapp (Rent). This is another first for the sci-fi series.
Fuller, who himself is gay, received a lot of hate mail while working on the last Star Trek series, Voyager, when a rumor went around that one of the characters on that show was going to be revealed as homosexual. While the rumor never proved true, Fuller swore if he was ever in a position of creating his own series for the franchise, a gay character would be front and center. So in essence, those homophobic haters inspired their greatest fear. You gotta love that.
Additionally, Doug Jones (Hellboy) has also joined the cast as Lt. Saru. Those who are familiar with Jones’ work won’t be surprised to hear that in addition to the Shenzhou’s science officer, he will also be playing a member of a heretofore unseen alien species.
There’s more casting to come, including another female lead, but as it stands Discovery is already shaping up to be the most diverse Star Trek ever. Shooting starts soon for a May 2017 premiere on CBS Access.
And lastly, if for no other reason than I’m pretty sure my boss will enjoy this, we leave you with a mash-up of epic proportions: It’s Always Sunny in Westeros. If you don’t know what this means, you don’t need to know; if you do, yeah, it’s as good as it sounds. YouTuber Pa Jama is responsible. Check it out.
Sleep well, film fans. We’ll see you back here tomorrow night for more Movie News After Dark.
