"Mad Max: Fury Road" Named Best Film by National Board of Review

Does "" deserve its award?

Space drama "The Martian" won a best actor award for Matt Damon and best director for Ridley Scott and was also named one of the nine top films of the year. Since 1995, only three of the National Board of Review's picks ("American Beauty", "No Country for Old Men", and "Slumdog Millionaire") have gone on to take the big prize at the Oscars.

Some top film critics have kept Mad Max in their top 10 list.

Still, the National Board was saluting filmmaking excellence and reminding people that director George Miller's film, released May 15, was a major achievement in a year of bloated sequels.

It will vie for awards including Best Film, Best Direction for George Miller and Best Actress for Charlize Theron.

Inside Out was deemed Best Animated Feature, Son of Saul Best Foreign Language Film and Amy Best Documentary.

The best actress prize went to Brie Larson for Room.

Instead it chose popular fare such as boxing movie Creed, rap music film Straight Outta Compton, Catholic Church sex abuse tale Spotlight and Room among its top films of the year.

One of the biggest hits of 2015 critically (97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes) and at the box office (over $375 million worldwide), the Tom Hardy-starring reboot of the classic franchise (which originally launched Mel Gibson into superstardom) still has an uphill climb to Oscar night, but this win will certainly perk the ears of Academy voters.

National Board of Review president Annie Schulhof said: "2015 has been a banner year for popular cinema".

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's annual gala took place on Tuesday in NY and also acted as a fundraiser to support student grants.