Daniel Day-Lewis breaks from retirement to fete Martin Scorsese at National Board of Review Awards

Daniel Day-Lewis took a break from retirement to present Martin Scorsese the award for best director at the National Board of Review Awards in midtown Manhattan

NEW YORK -- Daniel Day-Lewis took a break from retirement to present Martin Scorsese the award for best director at the National Board of Review Awards in midtown Manhattan on Thursday night.

Scorsese's Osage epic, “ Killers of the Flower Moon,” was the top honoree at the 95th NBR Awards. In awards announced earlier but handed out Thursday, “Killers of the Flower Moon” was the group's pick for best film, along with best director for Scorsese and best actress for Lily Gladstone.

The night's biggest surprise guest was Day-Lewis, who quit acting after Paul Thomas Anderson's 2017 film “Phantom Thread" and has since largely avoided public life. Day-Lewis sat next to Scorsese throughout the gala at Cipriani’s 42nd Street before presenting the directing award.

“I was a teenager when I discovered Martin's work,” Day-Lewis said. "With a light of his own making he illuminated unknown worlds that pulsed with a dangerous, irresistible energy — worlds that were mysterious to me and utterly enthralling. He illuminated the vast beautiful landscape of what is possible in film and he clarified for me what it is that one must ask of one self to work in faith."

Day-Lewis, who starred in Scorsese's “Gangs of New York” (2002) and “The Age of Innocence" (1993), called working with the director “one of the greatest joys and unexpected privileges of my life.”