Fury Road Named Top Film Of The Year — Mad Max

Point is, it’s actually not that insane that their pick for the Best Picture of 2015 is Mad Max: Fury Road, the critically acclaimed and batshit insane fourth film in George Miller’s 35-plus-year franchise. The film had a budget of $US150 million and made $US375 million at worldwide box office.

But it has not been seen as a likely contender for major awards such as the Oscars or Golden Globes.

The space drama earned the prizes for Best Director for Ridley Scott, Best Actor for Matt Damon and Best Adapted Screenplay for Drew Goddard.

However Oscar hopefuls were left empty handed by the Board of Review, which has a history of going against the mainstream. As per Sky News Australia, the Mad Max film beat Oscar favourites such as “Brooklyn”, “Spotlight”, “Carol”, “The Revenant”, “The Danish Girl” and of course “The Martian”.

National Board of Review president Annie Schulhof said: “2015 has been a banner year for popular cinema”. This year’s choices, in alphabetical order: “Bridge of Spies”, “Creed“, “The Hateful Eight”, “Inside Out”, “The Martian”, “Room”, “Sicario”, “Spotlight” and “Straight Outta Compton”. But the group, founded in 1909, has recently tried to shed its stodgy image, previously giving J.C. Chandor’s “A Most Violent Year” (in 2014) and Spike Jonze’s “Her” (in 2013) its top honor. Room star Brie Larson was named best actress, with her co-star Jacob Tremblay receiving an award for breakthrough performance, which he shares with fellow young actor Abraham Attah from Beasts of No Nation.

Quentin Tarantino, meanwhile, picked up the original screenplay award for his new western The Hateful Eight, which also saw Jennifer Jason Leigh named best supporting actress.

The National Board of Review is understood for spreading its awards round as a lot as potential, attracting a roomful of celebrities to its annual dinner in midtown NY.

The awards are one of the earliest significant indicators for February 28’s Oscar ceremony.