The National Board of Review is, of course, that small, storied organization whose annual movie-award choices dominate the conversation for three or four hours each year around the beginning of December. They are always the first to announce a Best Picture winner and so on. Last year they announced their picks on December 1, 2015, or exactly a day before the New York Film Critics Circle announced their winners on 12.2.15. This year, however, there’s a new early bird outfit in town — the Critics Choice Awards, which have been annually handed out by the Broadcast Film Critics Association (of which I am a member) for years now. On 8.18.16, however, the BFCA announced its intention to ace the influence of the Golden Globe Awards by holding the Critic Choice Awards on Sunday, 12.11. But the BFCA also announced that initial balloting would begin on the morning of 11.28.16 and end on 11.29.16, late in the day or early evening. The BFCA noms will be announced on 12.1.16. Hence, it would appear, the NBR had to advance their schedule by a day.