THE SOCIAL NETWORK Comes First on NBR’s List

This year the National Board of Review, a select group of film enthusiasts, academics, film professionals, and students, screened over 250 films including studio, independent, foreign-language, animated and documentary selections. These screenings were frequently followed by in-depth discussions with filmmakers, directors, actors, producers, and screenwriters. The NBR was founded as a clearing house for new movies, over a hundred years ago on January 25, 1909, just 13 years after the birth of cinema. Its stated purpose was to endorse films of merit and champion the new “art of the people,” which was transforming America’s cultural life.  Today, the organization is comprised of 110 members, many of whom are past recipients of the NBR student grant program which enables students and young filmmakers to finish their projects and exhibit their work.  

Each January, the NBR hosts talented and prestigious members of the film community at its awards gala, honoring achievements in a variety of categories of film, direction, and performance. In addition, the NBR recognizes new voices in filmmaking with its Directorial Debut andBreakthrough Acting Awards and singles out a deserving individual in the film community with The William K. Everson Film History Award, in honor of the pioneering film historian, educator, author, and longtime NBR member.  

For over 101 years the National Board of Review has dedicated its efforts to the support of film, domestic and foreign, as both art and entertainment. The nonprofit organization celebrates the distinctive voice of the individual artist, honoring excellence and supporting freedom of expression in film. The Board’s core activities include fostering commentary on all aspects of film production, as well as underwriting educational film programs and seminars for film students. In 2010, the NBR gave student grants to nine schools, and reached out to the community through the Children’s Aid Society, Reel Works Teen Filmmaking, The Ghetto Film School, and Educational Video Center.  In addition, the organization annually grants the Marion Carter Green award to a student   short film with strong musical elements.  For more information please visit http://www.nbrmp.org/.  

HISTORY  

The National Board of Review (NBR) was founded in 1909 in New York City, just thirteen years after the birth of cinema. It was formed to protest New York City Mayor George McClennan’s revocation of moving-picture exhibition licenses, which occurred on Christmas Eve of 1908 on the grounds that the new medium supposedly degraded the morals of the community.  To assert their constitutional freedom of expression, theater owners, led by Marcus Loew, and film distributors (Edison Biograph, Pathe, and Gaumont), joined John Collier of The People’s Institute at Cooper Union to establish a National Review Committee, a clearing house, that endorsed films of merit and encouraged the new “art of the people.” In 1919 the organization first selected its “10 best movies of the year.” The NBR later published a magazine called Films in Review, which was the first publication devoted to critical discussion of film, counting among its contributors Harold Robbins, Dore Schary, Stephen Sondheim, Alfred Hitchcock, and Tennessee Williams. During the era of the Hollywood blacklist (when others were silent), Films in Review vigorously opposed film censorship. Movies released between 1920 and 1951 carried the legend “Passed by the National Board of Review.”  

SOURCE: THE NATIONAL BOARD OF REVIEW