What a lovely day it must be for director George Miller, for, as Variety reports, the normally rather traditional National Board Of Review has declared Miller’s big-budget, post-apocalyptic action movie Mad Max: Fury Road its best film of 2015. (Last year’s winner, J.C. Chandor’s A Most Violent Year, was also an unexpected pick, but for different reasons.) The high-octane adventures of Max and the gang were considered a long shot in the race against “serious” indie fare like Carol, Spotlight, and Brooklyn, but if Mad Max: Fury Road teaches us anything, it’s that you cannot fuck with Imperator Furiosa where races are involved.
Other big winners this year include The Martian, which won for Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Adapted Screenplay; The Hateful Eight, which won Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress; Room, which won Best Actress and a special Breakthrough Performance award for 9-year-old star Jacob Tremblay; and Beasts Of No Nation, which received two special commendations. May they ride eternal, shiny and chrome.
Best Film: Mad Max: Fury Road
Best Director: Ridley Scott, The Martian
Best Actor: Matt Damon, The Martian
Best Actress: Brie Larson, Room
Best Supporting Actor: Sylvester Stallone, Creed
Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Hateful Eight
Best Original Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino, The Hateful Eight