National Board of Review Crowns ‘One Battle After Another’ Best Film of 2025

Paul Thomas Anderson’s action epic ‘One Battle After Another’ secured five honors from the National Board of Review, including best film, best director, best actor for Leonardo DiCaprio, best supporting actor for Benicio Del Toro, and breakthrough performance for Chase Infiniti. The Warner Bros. production follows a disillusioned veteran navigating a labyrinth of underground fight clubs in a dystopian Los Angeles, blending high-octane sequences with introspective monologues on redemption. This marks Anderson’s fourth NBR win overall, following adapted screenplay for ‘Inherent Vice’ in 2014, original screenplay for ‘Phantom Thread’ in 2017, and directing for ‘Licorice Pizza’ in 2021.

DiCaprio’s portrayal of the protagonist, a former Marine grappling with PTSD amid escalating bouts, earned him his third NBR acting prize. He previously won supporting actor for ‘What’s Eating Gilbert Grape’ in 1993 and ‘Django Unchained’ in 2012. Del Toro’s role as the veteran’s enigmatic trainer, delivering terse wisdom amid brutal training regimens, clinched supporting actor. Infiniti, in her feature debut as the fighter’s street-smart ally who uncovers a corporate conspiracy fueling the rings, received breakthrough performance recognition.

Rose Byrne claimed best actress for her turn in A24’s dark comedy ‘If I Had Legs I’d Kick You,’ where she plays a paraplegic inventor sabotaging rival tech firms from a high-rise wheelchair. The performance follows her New York Film Critics Circle win earlier in the week. Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas took best supporting actress for Neon’s ‘Sentimental Value,’ her first major awards nod, as a grieving widow unraveling family secrets in a remote Norwegian cabin during a solar eclipse expedition.

Warner Bros. continued its dominance with ‘Sinners’ netting original screenplay for Ryan Coogler and outstanding achievement in cinematography for Autumn Durald Arkapaw’s shadowy visuals of a 1930s Louisiana vampire hunt. The film chronicles twin brothers, played by Michael B. Jordan, confronting supernatural forces in the Jim Crow South, with 47 practical effects sequences and a runtime of 128 minutes. Netflix’s ‘Train Dreams’ won adapted screenplay for Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar’s script, drawn from Denis Johnson’s novella, depicting a logger’s hallucinatory odyssey through early 20th-century Idaho wildfires.

Eva Victor earned best directorial debut for A24’s ‘Sorry, Baby,’ a 92-minute thriller about a nanny entangled in her employer’s occult rituals in suburban Connecticut. Neon’s ‘Arco’ swept best animated feature with its 105-minute tale of a sentient robot rebelling against AI overlords in a flooded Venice. ‘It Was Just an Accident,’ Neon’s English-subtitled import from director Bong Joon-ho, claimed best international film, tracking a hit-and-run cover-up involving 12 interconnected suspects over 72 hours.

The NBR’s top 10 films list, in alphabetical order, features ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash,’ ‘F1,’ ‘Frankenstein,’ ‘Jay Kelly,’ ‘Marty Supreme,’ ‘Rental Family,’ ‘Sinners,’ ‘Train Dreams,’ ‘Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery,’ and ‘Wicked: For Good.’ Notable absences include Chloe Zhao’s ‘Hamnet,’ a 140-minute Shakespearean biopic with 22 period-accurate Elizabethan sets, and Park Chan-wook’s ‘No Other Choice,’ a 110-minute satire on corporate espionage in Seoul.

Historically, NBR best film winners secure Oscar best picture nominations in over 90 percent of cases across four decades, with outliers like ‘Quills’ in 2000 and ‘A Most Violent Year’ in 2014. Since the Academy’s expansion to 10 nominees in 2009, only ‘Green Book’ in 2018 bridged the gap fully. Last year’s NBR top pick, ‘Wicked,’ garnered a nomination but lost to ‘Anora.’ The 2025 NBR gala convenes January 13 in New York City, spotlighting 736 voting members’ selections from 312 qualifiers.

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