On a not-so-red carpet inside Cipriani 42nd Street in Midtown Manhattan on Thursday night, Da'Vine Joy Randolph was radiant.
“The fact that these people have seen my work is just mind-blowing,” said the actress, star of “The Holdovers,” who was being honored with the National Board of Review's best supporting actress award at its annual gala. film awards. , just days after she won her first Golden Globe for her role in the film on Sunday.
A few meters away, on the gray carpet, was Celine Song, who came to collect the award for best directorial debut for “Past Lives.” She was wearing a tuxedo jacket, a long skirt and a bow tie.
“Because the film is so personal, every time someone connects with it, I always feel less alone; I feel very seen, understood and embraced,” said Ms. Song, who based the romantic film in part on her own experience with a childhood friend.
At that moment an outcry broke out: Paul Giamatti, another star of “The Holdovers,” who was also being honored at the film awards gala for his performance, had stepped onto the carpet.
Giamatti had also won a Golden Globe for best actor in a dramatic motion picture. But it was the In-N-Out burger. had consumed, oh-so-casuallyduring a post-ceremony stop at a location in the Los Angeles area after his victory last week that people wanted to address.
“Were you making a statement?” someone shouted.
“No, I was just hungry,” he said. “I just wanted a hamburger.”
Randolph, Song and Giamatti were the three winners of 17 awards that the National Board of Review, a group of film enthusiasts, filmmakers and academics, presented at the gala, which honored the best films and performances of the past. year. Anne Hathaway, Amy Sedaris, Daniel Day-Lewis, Elizabeth Olsen, Ethan Hawke and Jessica Chastain attended as presenters.
The gala, a traditionally irreverent gathering that is not televised and whose winners are announced in advance, has become an annual stop on the East Coast for stars on the Oscar campaign trail. This year's ceremony took on added importance because voting for Oscar nominations began on the same day.
Others honored by the National Board of Review were Mark Ruffalo, as best supporting actor for his role in “Poor Things”; Martin Scorsese's crime drama “Killers of the Flower Moon” won best picture and best director, and “Killers” star Lily Gladstone won best actress. (Ms. Gladstone also won a Globe for best actress in a dramatic motion picture, becoming the first Indigenous person to do so.)
A handful of actors were also honored for their collective performances, including Zac Efron (best supporting cast for “The Iron Claw”) and Andrew Scott (The Board selected “All of Us Strangers” as one of its 10 best independent films).
While Ruffalo and Scott chatted at their table (each was covered with Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling dolls), Hathaway, dressed in a sparkly black strapless dress, posed next to Olsen, who was wearing a ruffled white dress. blazer. Chastain, dressed in a magenta and purple Vivienne Westwood dress, hugged Justine Triet, the French director to whom she would later present the award for best international film, for the courtroom thriller “Anatomy of a Fall.”
After a dinner of seared ahi tuna with baby fennel and sliced prime Wagyu sirloin, “Morning Joe” co-host Willie Geist began the awards portion of the evening. Freed from the time constraints and censorship of national television, comments and speeches often exceeded the 10-minute mark and were sometimes peppered with profanity.
There were moving moments, too: Michael J. Fox received the first ovation of the night when he took the stage with Davis Guggenheim, the director of “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie,” which won best documentary. The film chronicles Mr. Fox's experience learning to live with Parkinson's disease.
“Parkinson's has been a gift,” said Fox, who retired from acting in 2020 because his speech was becoming increasingly unreliable. “It's been a gift that keeps on getting, but it's given me an audience to talk about what's possible.”
Later, as Hathaway presented the annual icon award to Bradley Cooper, the director and star of the Leonard Bernstein biopic “Maestro,” which the National Board of Review named one of the 10 best films of the year, she shared how her Las Families had become friendly during the pandemic while sharing the pizza that Mr. Cooper had prepared.
Mr. Cooper then shared the highlight of the evening: meeting Ms. Randolph for the first time and having the opportunity to “tell her how inspiring she is.” (“Did you realize that Bradley Cooper knows who I am now?” Ms. Randolph joked when she accepted her own award from her a few minutes later.)
Ms. Gladstone also received a standing ovation when she approached the stage in a long black dress that had lattice sleeves studded with silver circles.
“It's strange as an actor to speak your character's language better than your own,” said Gladstone, who is of Blackfeet and Nez Percé heritage. Then he shared a word in the Blackfoot language that he had recently learned that, he said, meant “I can feel the good of what you have done.”
An unexpected twist occurred when Sedaris, after presenting Giamatti with the best actor award, fell while walking towards the back of the stage. He ended up face up. Although Giamatti was quick to help her up, it didn't seem to be anything serious: she remained motionless on the floor during her acceptance speech as the room erupted in laughter.
Would Mr. Giamatti be celebrating with a late-night trip to Shake Shack?
“Uhhhhhh, maybe,” he said. “I love In-N-Out. “I'm not going to knock Shake Shack, but, I mean, if they had an In-N-Out here, I'd probably go.”
