Steven Spielberg drama The Post becomes Oscars 2018 frontrunner following National Board of Review win

The 2017-18 award season has officially begun

The Post is gearing up to be every inch the Oscars 2018 contender everyone first thought following its victory at an awards ceremony long considered to officially kick off awards season.

Steven Spielberg's latest was crowned the Best Film of 2017 by the National Board of Review, a 108-year organisation comprising “film enthusiasts, filmmakers, professionals and academics.”

The film's lead stars Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks were handed top acting honours with the supporting categories awarded to Willem Dafoe (The Florida Project) and Laurie Metcalf (Lady Bird).

Announced in March, the project - which is spearheaded by acting titans Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks - is based on a true story in which journalists working for The Washington Post in 1971 raced to expose a massive cover-up of government secrets that spanned three decades, an effort that endangers their own freedom.

Streep plays journalist Katharine Graham, the first female publisher of a major American newspaper, while Hanks stars as her editor Ben Bradlee.

For his latest, directing maestro Spielberg has assembled an ensemble comprised of some of the best actors working in television today: Alison Brie, Carrie Coon, Tracy Letts, Bob Odenkirk, Sarah Paulson, Matthew Rhys and Jesse Plemons to name a few.

If the National Board of Review has failed to predict the eventual Best Picture winner since 2008 (Slumdog Millionaire), nine out of its ten past victorious films ended up being nominated in the category (J.C. Chandor's standout A Most Violent Year being the exception). Last year's winner was Manchester by the Sea.

First-time filmmaker Greta Gerwig won Best Director for Lady Bird while screenplay honours were awarded to both The Disaster Artist and Paul Thomas Anderson's Phantom Thread.

The Post will be released in the UK on 19 January.

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