At the National Board of Review Gala, Leonardo DiCaprio, Michael B. Jordan, and Rose Byrne Paid Homage to the Power of Cinema

You know awards season is underway when the marble floors and cathedral-like ceilings of Cipriani 42nd Street are reverberating with cinephile chatter: “What did you love? What’s overrated? Who gave a career best? What’s your sleeper hit?” The National Board of Review’s annual awards gala returned on Tuesday evening, bringing a troupe of directors, actors, and familiar faces from Hollywood to the storied Manhattan venue.

Among the celebration’s recognized films were Train Dreams, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, Arco, Cover-Up, and Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk—with Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another emerging as the evening’s gravitational center, taking home five accolades.

While award ceremonies are standard fare at this time of year, the National Board of Review operates with its own temperate charm. For one: it isn’t televised, and it isn’t angling for virality. With winners announced in advance, the program leans into something more intimate. Presenters are also paired with recipients with whom they share a creative history, thus speeches feel less like an obligation and more like a genuine and heartfelt dialogue between collaborators.

For instance, Ryan Coogler’s presenter was none other than Michael B. Jordan, who has anchored two of his critically acclaimed films, Sinners and Creed. Ann Dowd, presenting Chase Infiniti with her Breakthrough Performance honors for One Battle After Another, spoke with the kind of fond specificity that comes naturally when you’ve been in the trenches together. (The pair just wrapped filming for The Testaments, which will air in April.) And Rose Byrne’s award was delivered by Paul Rudd, who—on a night full of lofty praise—took a quick and hilarious detour to vouch for the prowess of her spinach pie recipe, alongside her many other talents. Cheering from the crowd were the likes of Emily Blunt, Maya Rudolph, Martin Scorsese, and Louisa Jacobson too.

The most buzzed-about attendee of the night was Leonardo DiCaprio, who has been in the National Board of Review’s universe for a veritable lifetime. The NBR first honored him back in 1993 for What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. More than three decades later, he was on stage to accept Best Actor for One Battle After Another. The honor wasn’t lost on him, even after all this time. “My father took me to see my first film in a theater when I was four years old,” he shared. “I remember gazing up at that massive screen completely in awe, hysterically crying at the end of King Kong. Something shifted in me. Film became an escape from the limits of my surroundings…a place where something larger than my own life felt possible.”

DiCaprio also took his moment in the spotlight as an opportunity to wax lyrical about working with Anderson. “At some point, each of us sat in a movie theater. The lights went down, and something on that screen rearranged how we saw the world and ourselves,” he said. “Paul, your original impact on original cinematic storytelling reminds us why it still matters to sit together in a dark theater, and give a great story our complete and undivided attention.”