National Board of Review Names ‘Green Book’ Best of 2018, Rewards Viggo Mortensen for His Vinnie Boombatz Accent

Though their pick for the best film of the year hasn't aligned with the Academy's opinion since 2008's Slumdog Millionaire, the National Board of Review has long been the best first indicator of what films we should expect to compete for Oscars early the next year. For example, last year they gave three of their top five prizes to The Post, a film nominated for only two Oscars. So take their selections with a grain of salt.

For 2018, the NBR has awarded Peter Farrelly's Green Book the top prize, with its lead actor Viggo Mortensen also taking the Best Actor award for his performances as an offensively stereotypical early '60s Brooklyn mook named "Vinnie the Lip," who learns that racism is bad thanks to his friendship with an articulate, talented, well-regarded in social circles black dude. And in case you were wondering if that was a typo, this was indeed directed by a Farrelly brother, not unlike that time one of the Zucker Brothers got suddenly respectable because he directed Ghost.

Academy darling Bradley Cooper picked up the Best Director award for his better-than-it-had-any-right-to-be remake of A Star is Born, and I guarantee he's on his way to an Oscar, either for Best Actor or Best Director. Cooper's co-stars Lady Gaga and Sam Elliott took home the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor awards, and hopefully that means that Elliott is on his way to his first Oscar nomination. It's a god damned sin he doesn't already have an Oscar for his Road House.

Check out the complete list of winners below, along with their annual lists of the Best Films of the Year in several categories. It's very nice to see The Death of Stalin get some love as it's my favorite movie of the year...

Best Film:  GREEN BOOK

Best Director:  Bradley Cooper, A STAR IS BORN

Best Actor:  Viggo Mortensen, GREEN BOOK

Best Actress: Lady Gaga, A STAR IS BORN

Best Supporting Actor: Sam Elliott, A STAR IS BORN

Best Supporting Actress:  Regina King, IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK

Best Original Screenplay:  Paul Schrader, FIRST REFORMED

Best Adapted Screenplay:  Barry Jenkins, IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK

Best Animated Feature:  INCREDIBLES 2

Breakthrough Performance: Thomasin McKenzie, LEAVE NO TRACE

Best Directorial Debut:  Bo Burnham, EIGHTH GRADE

Best Foreign Language Film:  COLD WAR

Best Documentary:  RBG

Best Ensemble:  CRAZY RICH ASIANS

William K. Everson Film History Award: THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND and THEY’LL LOVE ME WHEN I’M DEAD

NBR Freedom of Expression Award:  22 JULY

NBR Freedom of Expression Award:  ON HER SHOULDERS

Top Films (in alphabetical order)

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

Top 5 Foreign Language Films (in alphabetical order)

Burning

Custody

The Guilty

Happy as Lazzaro

Shoplifters

Top 5 Documentaries (in alphabetical order)

Crime  + Punishment

Free Solo

Minding the Gap

Three Identical Strangers

Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

Top 10 Independent Films (in alphabetical order)

The Death of Stalin

Lean on Pete

Leave No Trace

Mid90s

The Old Man & the Gun

The Rider

Searching

Sorry to Bother You

We the Animals

You Were Never Really Here

[h/t Deadline]