National Board of Review: Top Ten Independent Films

The following is a list of the Top 10 Independent Films chosen annually by the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures, beginning in 2006.

Lists

2000s

2006:
- 10 Items or Less
- Akeelah and the Bee
- Bobby
- Catch a Fire
- Copying Beethoven
- A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints
- Half Nelson
- The Illusionist
- Lonesome Jim
- Sherrybaby
- Thank You for Smoking

2007:
- Away from Her
- Great World of Sound
- Honeydripper
- In the Valley of Elah
- A Mighty Heart
- The Namesake
- Once
- The Savages
- Starting Out in the Evening
- Waitress

2008:
- Frozen River
- In Bruges
- In Search of a Midnight Kiss
- Mister Foe
- Rachel Getting Married
- Snow Angels
- Son of Rambow
- Wendy and Lucy
- Vicky Cristina Barcelona
- The Visitor

2009:
- Amreeka
- District 9
- Goodbye Solo
- Humpday
- In the Loop
- Julia
- Me and Orson Welles
- Moon
- Sugar
- Two Lovers

2010s

2010:
- Animal Kingdom
- Buried
- Fish Tank
- The Ghost Writer
- Greenberg
- Let Me In
- Monsters
- Please Give
- Somewhere
- Youth in Revolt

2011:
- 50/50
- Another Earth
- Beginners
- A Better Life
- Cedar Rapids
- Margin Call
- Shame
- Take Shelter
- We Need To Talk About Kevin
- Win Win

2012:
- Arbitrage
- Bernie
- Compliance
- End of Watch
- Hello I Must Be Going
- Little Birds
- Moonrise Kingdom
- On the Road
- Quartet
- Sleepwalk with Me

2013:
- 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

2014:
- Blue Ruin
- Locke
- A Most Wanted Man
- Mr. Turner
- Obvious Child
- The Skeleton Twins
- Snowpiercer
- Stand Clear of the Closing Doors
- Starred Up
- Still Alice

2015:
- '71
- 45 Years
- Cop Car
- Ex Machina
- Grandma
- It Follows
- James White
- Mississippi Grind
- Welcome to Me
- While We’re Young

2016:
- 20th Century Women
- Captain Fantastic
- Creative Control
- Eye in the Sky
- The Fits
- Green Room
- Hello, My Name Is Doris
- Krisha
- Morris from America
- Sing Street

2017:^[1]
- Beatriz at Dinner
- Brigsby Bear
- A Ghost Story
- Lady Macbeth
- Logan Lucky
- Loving Vincent
- Menashe
- Norman
- Patti Cake$
- Wind River

2018:^[2]
- The Death of Stalin
- Lean on Pete
- Leave No Trace
- Mid90s
- The Old Man & the Gun
- The Rider
- Searching
- Sorry to Bother You
- We the Animals
- You Were Never Really Here

2019:^[3]
- The Farewell
- Give Me Liberty
- A Hidden Life
- Judy
- The Last Black Man in San Francisco
- Midsommar
- The Nightingale
- The Peanut Butter Falcon
- The Souvenir
- Wild Rose

2020s

2020:^[4]
- The Climb
- Driveways
- Farewell Amor
- Miss Juneteenth
- The Nest
- Never Rarely Sometimes Always
- The Outpost
- Relic
- Saint Frances
- Wolfwalkers

2021:^[5]
- The Card Counter
- C'mon C'mon
- CODA
- The Green Knight
- Holler
- Jockey
- Old Henry
- Pig
- Shiva Baby
- The Souvenir Part II

2022:^[6]
- Armageddon Time
- Emily the Criminal
- The Eternal Daughter
- Funny Pages
- The Inspection
- Living
- A Love Song
- Nanny
- To Leslie
- The Wonder

2023:
- All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt
- All of Us Strangers
- BlackBerry
- Earth Mama
- Flora and Son
- The Persian Version
- Scrapper
- Showing Up
- Theater Camp
- A Thousand and One

2024:
- Bird
- A Different Man
- Dìdi
- Ghostlight
- Good One
- Hard Truths
- His Three Daughters
- Love Lies Bleeding
- My Old Ass
- Thelma

2025^[7]:
- The Baltimorons
- Bring Her Back
- Father Mother Sister Brother
- Friendship
- Good Boy
- If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
- The Mastermind
- Rebuilding
- Sorry, Baby
- Urchin

References

External links

National Board of Review of Motion Pictures: Top 10 Independent Films

National Board of Review

Current awards

Film year