An emotional plea by Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi and moving words from Ryan Coogler on the violence in Minneapolis stirred a National Board of Review Awards ceremony Tuesday in which Paul Thomas Anderson's "One Battle After Another" was again crowned the best film of the year. Coming two days after Sunday's Golden Globes, the annual, untelevised New York gala, held in the cavernous midtown banquet all Cipriani 42nd Street and hosted by Willie Geist, played out as a more intimate and frank-spoken alternative. The winners themselves were already announced, so the night was always going to belong to "One Battle After Another." The National Board of review, a group that is made up of film enthusiasts and dates to 1909, not only named it 2025's best film but awarded the best actor prize to Leonardo DiCaprio, best director to Anderson, best supporting actor to Benicio Del Toro and breakthrough performer to Chase Infiniti. Yet in an ongoing parade of awards for "One Battle After Another," its night at the NBRs still stood out. The surprise presenter of the movie's best film award was Martin Scorsese, who praised "the audacity" of Anderson's narratives and the accomplishment of his latest. "Like all great films, it can't really be compared to anything else," Scorsese said. "It stands alone. It's a great American film." Anderson, trying to take in the wealth of honors, attempted to describe what " One Battle After Another," his father-daughter tale of revolution, might represent. His answer came in pointing out his own daughter, sitting at his table. "I don't know what our movie is about, but I do know it's about loving your kids," Anderson said. For many of the honorees, the world outside the starry banquet weighed heavily. Coogler's speech was among... Read More