Film Awards By Year

1981 National Board of Review - Top Ten Films WinnerAtlantic CityIn a corrupt city, a small-time gangster and the estranged wife of a pot dealer find themselves thrown together in an escapade of love, money, drugs and danger.AmazonBreaker MorantThree Australian lieutenants are court martialed for executing prisoners as a way of deflecting attention from war crimes committed by their superior officers.AmazonChariots of FireTwo British track athletes, one a determined Jew, and the other a devout Christian, compete in the 1924 Olympics.AmazonGallipoliTwo Australian sprinters face the brutal realities of war when they are sent to fight in the Gallipoli campaign in Turkey during World War I.AmazonHeartlandA widow with a young daughter travels to a ranch in Wyoming to manage the household of a r...

1980 National Board of Review - Top Ten Films WinnerCoal Miner's DaughterBiographical story of the legendary country singer's rise from humble, poverty-stricken beginnings in Kentucky to worldwide superstardom and how she changed the sound and style of country music forever.AmazonMelvin and HowardThe story of hard-luck Melvin E. Dummar, who claimed to have received a will naming him an heir to the fortune of Howard Hughes.AmazonMy BodyguardWhen a boy comes to a new school and gets harassed by a bully, he acquires the services of the school's most feared kid as a bodyguard.AmazonOrdinary PeopleThe accidental death of the older son of an affluent family deeply strains the relationships among the bitter mother, the good-natured father, and the guilt-ridden younger son.AmazonRaging BullThe lif...

1979 National Board of Review - Top Ten Films WinnerApocalypse NowA U.S. Army officer serving in Vietnam is tasked with assassinating a renegade Special Forces Colonel who sees himself as a god.AmazonBeing ThereA simpleminded, sheltered gardener becomes an unlikely trusted advisor to a powerful businessman and an insider in Washington politics.AmazonBreaking AwayA small-town boy obsessed with the Italian cycling team vies for the affections of a college girl.AmazonKramer vs. KramerTed Kramer's wife leaves him, allowing for a lost bond to be rediscovered between Ted and his son, Billy. But a heated custody battle ensues over the divorced couple's son, deepening the wounds left by the separation.AmazonManhattanThe life of a divorced television writer dating a teenage girl is further complica...

1978 National Board of Review - Top Ten Films WinnerAn Unmarried WomanA wealthy woman from Manhattan's Upper East Side struggles to deal with her new identity and her sexuality after her husband of sixteen years leaves her for a younger woman.AmazonComes a HorsemanElla Connors is a single woman who gets pressured to sell her failing cattle farm to her corrupt ex suitor, Jacob Ewing. She asks for help from her neighbor, Frank Athearn. As Ella and ...AmazonComing HomeA woman whose husband is fighting in Vietnam falls in love with another man who suffered a paralyzing combat injury there.AmazonDays of HeavenA hot-tempered farm laborer convinces the woman he loves to marry their rich but dying boss so that they can have a claim to his fortune.AmazonGirlfriendsA photographer and her girlfriend ...

1977 National Board of Review - Top Ten Films WinnerAnnie HallNeurotic New York comedian Alvy Singer falls in love with the ditzy Annie Hall.AmazonClose Encounters of the Third KindRoy Neary, an electric lineman, watches how his quiet and ordinary daily life turns upside down after a close encounter with a UFO.AmazonEquusA psychiatrist attempts to uncover a troubled stable boy's disturbing obsession with horses.AmazonHarlan County U.S.A.A filmed account of a bitterly violent miner strike.AmazonJuliaAt the behest of an old and dear friend, playwright Lillian Hellman undertakes a dangerous mission to smuggle funds into Nazi Germany.AmazonSaturday Night FeverAnxious about his future after high school, a 19-year-old Italian-American from Brooklyn tries to escape the harsh reality of his bleak ...

1976 National Board of Review - Top Ten Films WinnerAll the President's Men"The Washington Post" reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncover the details of the Watergate scandal that leads to President Richard Nixon's resignation.AmazonFamily PlotA phony psychic/con artist and her taxi driver/private investigator boyfriend encounter a pair of serial kidnappers while trailing a missing heir in California.AmazonNetworkA television network cynically exploits a deranged former anchor's ravings and revelations about the news media for its own profit.AmazonObsessionA wealthy New Orleans businessman becomes obsessed with a young woman who resembles his wife.AmazonRockyA small-time boxer gets a supremely rare chance to fight a heavy-weight champion in a bout in which he strives to go the dis...

1975 National Board of Review - Top Ten Films WinnerAlice Doesn't Live Here AnymoreA recently widowed woman is on the road with her precocious young son, determined to make a new life for herself as a singer.AmazonBarry LyndonAn Irish rogue wins the heart of a rich widow and assumes her dead husband's aristocratic position in 18th-century England.AmazonConduct UnbecomingAt a British Regimental party in Colonial India, the widow of Captain Scarlett is assaulted in the garden, and she accuses one of the newly arrived junior Lieutenants of the crime.AmazonDog Day AfternoonA man robs a bank to pay for his lover's operation, which turns into a hostage situation and a media circus.AmazonFarewell, My LovelyLos Angeles private eye Philip Marlowe is hired by paroled convict Moose Malloy to find his...

1974 National Board of Review - Top Ten Films WinnerA Woman Under the InfluenceMabel, a wife and mother, is loved by her husband Nick but her mental illness proves to be a problem in the marriage.AmazonChinatownA private detective hired to expose an adulterer finds himself caught up in a web of deceit, corruption, and murder.AmazonDaisy MillerIn this comedy of manners, Frederick Winterbourne tries to figure out the bright and bubbly Daisy Miller, only to be helped and hindered by false judgments from their fellow friends.AmazonHarry and TontoWhen his apartment building is torn down, a retired lifelong New Yorker goes on a cross country odyssey with his beloved cat Tonto.AmazonLennyThe story of acerbic 1960s comic Lenny Bruce, whose groundbreaking, no-holds-barred style and social commentar...

1973 National Board of Review - Top Ten Films WinnerBang the Drum SlowlyThe story of the friendship between a star pitcher, wise to the world, and a half-wit catcher, as they cope with the catcher's terminal illness through a baseball season.AmazonO Lucky Man!An apprentice coffee salesman has a series of improbable and ironic adventures that seem designed to challenge his naive idealism.AmazonPaper MoonDuring the Great Depression, a con man finds himself saddled with a young girl who may or may not be his daughter, and the two forge an unlikely partnership.AmazonSerpicoAn honest New York cop named Frank Serpico blows the whistle on rampant corruption in the force only to have his comrades turn against him.AmazonThe Day of the DolphinA marine biologist teaches his dolphins to communicate in...

1972 National Board of Review - Top Ten Films Winner1776A musical retelling of the American Revolution's political struggle in the Continental Congress to declare independence.AmazonCabaretA female girlie club entertainer in Weimar Republic era Berlin romances two men while the Nazi Party rises to power around them.AmazonDeath in VeniceWhile recovering in Venice, sickly Composer Gustav von Aschenbach becomes dangerously fixated with teenager Tadzio.AmazonDeliveranceIntent on seeing the Cahulawassee River before it's dammed and turned into a lake, outdoor fanatic Lewis Medlock takes his friends on a canoeing trip they'll never forget into the dangerous American back-country.AmazonFrenzyA serial murderer is strangling women with a necktie. The London police have a suspect, but he is the wron...