2008 National Society of Film Critics Awards



43rd NSFC Awards January 3, 2009

Best Film:  Waltz with Bashir 

The 43rd National Society of Film Critics Awards, given on 3 January 2009, honored the best in film for 2008.

Best Picture
1. Waltz with Bashir (Vals Im Bashir) 2. Happy-Go-Lucky 2. WALL-E

Best Director
1. Mike Leigh – Happy-Go-Lucky 2. Gus Van Sant – Milk and Paranoid Park 3. Danny Boyle – Slumdog Millionaire

Best Actor
1. Sean Penn – Milk 2. Mickey Rourke – The Wrestler 3. Clint Eastwood – Gran Torino

Best Actress
1. Sally Hawkins – Happy-Go-Lucky 2. Melissa Leo – Frozen River 3. Michelle Williams – Wendy and Lucy

Best Supporting Actor
1. Eddie Marsan – Happy-Go-Lucky 2. Heath Ledger – The Dark Knight 3. Josh Brolin – Milk

Best Supporting Actress
1. Hanna Schygulla – The Edge of Heaven (Auf der anderen Seite) 2. Viola Davis – Doubt 3. Penélope Cruz – Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Best Screenplay
1. Mike Leigh – Happy-Go-Lucky 2. Arnaud Desplechin and Emmanuel Bourdieu – A Christmas Tale (Un conte de Noël) 3. Charlie Kaufman – Synecdoche, New York

Best Cinematography
1. Anthony Dod Mantle – Slumdog Millionaire 2. Pin Bing Lee – Flight of the Red Balloon (Le voyage du ballon rouge) 3. Wally Pfister – The Dark Knight 4. Yu Lik-wai – Still Life (Sanxia haoren)

Best Non-Fiction Film
1. Man on Wire 2. Trouble the Water 3. Encounters at the End of the World

Best Experimental Film

 * Razzle Dazzle

Film Heritage Awards

 * 1) The Criterion Collection for finally making Samuel Fuller's suppressed White Dog (1982) available to a wide American audience via DVD release.
 * 2) The Exiles, Kent Mackenzie's realistic 1961 independent film about Native Americans in Los Angeles. (Restored by Ross Lipman of the UCLA Film and Television Archive and distributed by Milestone).
 * 3) Flicker Alley for releasing DVD collections of rare early U.S. and foreign silent films.
 * 4) 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment for its DVD set Murnau, Borzage and Fox.