Spike Jonze's 'Her' is National Board of Review's Best Film of 2013

Hooray! The National Board of Review, one of the many organizations voting on awards for movies, has announced their 2013 awards today. The top film - Spike Jonze's Her, which won Best Film of 2013 and Best Director for Jonze, though it didn't win anything else along the way. Instead, a few other acting wins went to Nebraska, Fruitvale Station and Saving Mr. Banks, with Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street and the Coen's Inside Llewyn Davis sneaking in via the screenplay categories. I'm mostly happy that Her is starting to win awards like Best Film, hopefully this is just the start of what's to come. View the full NBR list below.

The National Board of Review’s awards will be handed out January 7th in New York City at a gala hosted by Lara Spencer. The NBR Awards include a number of categories and follow-up lists of best films (including independent films), which can be found in their entirety below from the official NBR website. 2013 picks:

Best Film: Her

Best Director: Spike Jonze - Her

Best Actor: Bruce Dern - Nebraska

Best Actress: Emma Thompson - Saving Mr. Banks

Best Supporting Actor: Will Forte - Nebraska

Best Supporting Actress: Octavia Spencer - Fruitvale Station

Best Original Screenplay: Joel & Ethan Coen - Inside Llewyn Davis

Best Adapted Screenplay: Terence Winter - The Wolf of Wall Street

Best Animated Feature: The Wind Rises

Breakthrough Performance: Michael B. Jordan - Fruitvale Station

Breakthrough Performance: Adele Exarchopoulos - Blue is the Warmest Color

Best Directorial Debut: Ryan Coogler - Fruitvale Station

Best Foreign Language Film: Asghar Farhadi - The Past

Best Documentary: Stories We Tell

William K. Everson Film History Award: George Stevens, Jr.

Best Ensemble: Prisoners

Spotlight Award: Career Collaboration of Martin Scorsese & Leonardo DiCaprio

NBR Freedom of Expression Award: Wadjda

Creative Innovation in Filmmaking Award: Gravity

Top Films (in alphabetical order):
12 Years a Slave
Fruitvale Station
Gravity
Inside Llewyn Davis
Lone Survivor
Nebraska
Prisoners
Saving Mr. Banks
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
The Wolf of Wall Street

Top 5 Foreign Language Films (in alphabetical order):
Beyond the Hills
Gloria
The Grandmaster
A Hijacking
The Hunt

Top 5 Documentaries (in alphabetical order):
20 Feet from Stardom
The Act of Killing
After Tiller
Casting By
The Square

Top 10 Independent Films (in alphabetical order):
Ain’t Them Bodies Saints
Dallas Buyers Club
In a World…
Mother of George
Much Ado About Nothing
Mud
The Place Beyond the Pines
Short Term 12
Sightseers
The Spectacular Now

Congrats to all of this year's winners. I loved Her and I'm so happy it won, just the beginning for it, I hope. "Spike Jonze is one of the most talented and visionary filmmakers working today," said Annie Schulhof, NBR President. "In Her, he explores the age-old themes of love and human connection in a completely fresh and innovative way. It is an outstanding achievement that is sure to become a new classic." A select group of knowledgeable film enthusiasts and professionals, academics, young filmmakers and students, the National Board of Review viewed over 250 films this year including studio, independent, foreign-language, animated and documentary selections. Last year they chose Kathryn Bigelow and Zero Dark Thirty for Best Director and Best Film. Yet another set of notable winners to really kick off the fun 2013 awards season.