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The 2008 Critics Consensus Award Nominations


Sean Penn and Victor Garber in Milk

A record-equalling eight nominations for Gus van Sant's Milk in the 2008 Critics Consensus Awards, and a further record for van Sant himself: ten nominations for his movies in total, as Paranoid Park picks up a surprise pair of tech nods. This is the first year in which an animated title makes the Best Picture cut here (and we didn't even need to expand to 10 nominees!) - WALL-E makes an appearance without any other mentions save Best Music, failing even to crack the Original Screenplay top five. Between this and The Dark Knight's robust performance, this is quite the rebuttal to the Academy, and a year in which only two Best Picture nominees match between the two groups, just before their expansion. Most curious may be the absence of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button in the top category, though the 2008 nominations are peppered with little oddities throughout. Award winners are on their way later today, with nominations all below for now:


Best Picture

The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan, Charles Roven and Emma Thomas)

Happy-Go-Lucky (Simon Channing Williams and Mike Leigh)

Milk (Bruce Cohen, Dan Jinks and Gus van Sant)

Slumdog Millionaire (Danny Boyle, Christian Colson and Loveleen Tandan)

WALL-E (Jim Morris and Andrew Stanton)


Best Director

Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire)

David Fincher (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)

Mike Leigh (Happy-Go-Lucky)

Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight)

Gus van Sant (Milk)


Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

Anne Hathaway (Rachel Getting Married)

Sally Hawkins (Happy-Go-Lucky)

Melissa Leo (Frozen River)

Meryl Streep (Doubt)

Michelle Williams (Wendy and Lucy)


Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

Clint Eastwood (Gran Torino)

Richard Jenkins (The Visitor)

Frank Langella (Frost/Nixon)

Sean Penn (Milk)

Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler)


Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

Penelope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona)

Viola Davis (Doubt)

Rosemarie DeWitt (Rachel Getting Married)

Marisa Tomei (The Wrestler)

Kate Winslet (The Reader)


Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

Josh Brolin (Milk)

Robert Downey Jr. (Tropic Thunder)

Philip Seymour Hoffman (Doubt)

Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)

Eddie Marsan (Happy-Go-Lucky)


Best Original Screenplay

Dustin Lance Black (Milk)

Charlie Kaufman (Synecdoche, New York)

Mike Leigh (Happy-Go-Lucky)

Jenny Lumet (Rachel Getting Married)

Martin McDonagh (In Bruges)


Best Adapted Screenplay

Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire)

David Hare (The Reader)

Peter Morgan (Frost/Nixon)

Eric Roth (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)

John Patrick Shanley (Doubt)


Best Cinematography

Christopher Doyle and Rain Li (Paranoid Park)

Anthony Dod Mantle (Slumdog Millionaire)

Claudio Miranda (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)

Wally Pfister (The Dark Knight)

Colin Watkinson (The Fall)


Best Editing

Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)

Chris Dickens (Slumdog Millionaire)

Elliot Graham (Milk)

Lee Smith (The Dark Knight)

Gus van Sant (Paranoid Park)


Best Music

Alexandre Desplat (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)

Danny Elfman (Milk)

Thomas Newman (WALL-E)

James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer (The Dark Knight)

A. R. Rahman (Slumdog Millionaire)


Best Ensemble Cast

Amy Adams, Viola Davis, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Meryl Streep (Doubt)

Mathieu Amalric, Emile Berling, Francoise Bertin, Laurent Capelluto, Anne Consigny, Catherine Deneuve, Emmanuelle Devos, Hippolyte Girardot, Chiara Mastroianni, Melvil Poupaud and Jean-Paul Roussillon (A Christmas Tale)

Josh Brolin, Joseph Cross, James Franco, Victor Garber, Emile Hirsch, Diego Luna, Denis O'Hare, Sean Penn and Alison Pill (Milk)

Hope Davis, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Samantha Morton, Tom Noonan, Emily Watson, Dianne Wiest and Michelle Williams (Synecdoche, New York)

Anna Deavere Smith, Rosemarie DeWitt, Anisa George, Anne Hathaway, Bill Irwin, Debra Winger and Mather Zickel (Rachel Getting Married)


Best Documentary

Encounters at the End of the World (Werner Herzog and Henry Kaiser)

Man on Wire (Simon Chinn and James Marsh)

Standard Operating Procedure (Julie Ahlberg and Errol Morris)

Trouble the Water (Carl Deal and Tia Lessin)

Waltz with Bashir (Ari Folman, Serge Lalou, Gerhard Meixner, Yael Nahlieli and Roman Paul)


Best Foreign Language Film

A Christmas Tale (Pascal Caucheteux and Arnaud Desplechin)

The Class (Simon Arnal, Caroline Benjo, Laurent Cantet, Barbara Letellier and Carole Scotta)

I've Loved You So Long (Philippe Claudel and Yves Marmion)

Let the Right One In (Tomas Alfredson, Carl Molinder and John Nordling)

Waltz with Bashir (Ari Folman, Serge Lalou, Gerhard Meixner, Yael Nahlieli and Roman Paul)


Image Credit: MovieStillsDB

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