‘WALL-E,’ ‘Slumdog Millionaire,’ ‘The Dark Knight’ Win Awards From Chicago Film Critics Association

CHICAGO – The Chicago Film Critics Association announced their winners for the best of 2008 and an animated robot, superhero movie villain, wrestling star, and former teen actress walked away with big prizes. “Wall-E” was the big winner of the day, taking home an amazing four prizes, the most presented to any one movie this year.

Pixar’s “Wall-E”, an animated masterpiece about the last robot on planet Earth, won the big prize for Best Picture and also took home Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Score, and Best Animated Film.

The Chicago Film Critics Association, which includes HollywoodChicago.com’s Publisher Adam Fendelman and Content Director Brian Tallerico, gave their Best Director prize to Danny Boyle for “Slumdog Millionaire”. The sleeper hit about a young man trying to prove that he didn’t cheat on the Indian version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” also claimed prizes for Best Adapted Screenplay and Dev Patel for Most Promising Newcomer.

The Best Actor trophy for 2008 went to Mickey Rourke in “The Wrestler”, beating out Sean Penn in “Milk”, Clint Eastwood in “Gran Torino”, Richard Jenkins in “The Visitor”, and Frank Langella in “Frost/Nixon”.

For Best Actress, Sally Hawkins in “Happy-Go-Lucky”, Angelina Jolie in “Changeling”, Melissa Leo in “Frozen River”, and Meryl Streep in “Doubt” all lost out to Anne Hathaway in “Rachel Getting Married”.

Heath Ledger took home another prize for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of The Joker in “The Dark Knight”, stealing the prize from Robert Downey Jr. in “Tropic Thunder”, Philip Seymour Hoffman in “Doubt”, Bill Irwin in “Rachel Getting Married”, and Michael Shannon in “Revolutionary Road”. “The Dark Knight” also won Best Cinematograpy.

Perhaps the most surprising win of the day was Kate Winslet’s for Best Supporting Actress for “The Reader”. Also nominated in that category was the most-common winner of the season, Penelope Cruz in “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”, Amy Adams in “Doubt”, Rosemarie DeWitt in “Rachel Getting Married”, and Viola Davis in “Doubt”.

The excellent Swedish horror sensation “Let the Right One In” won the prizes for Best Foreign-Language Film and Most Promising Director for Tomas Alfredson and “Man on Wire” took the trophy for Best Documentary.

The Chicago Film Critics Association

2008 CFCA AWARD WINNERS

BEST PICTURE: WALL-E

BEST DIRECTOR: Danny Boyle - Slumdog Millionaire

BEST ACTOR: Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler

BEST ACTRESS: Anne Hathaway - Rachel Getting Married

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Kate Winslet - The Reader

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: WALL-E (Andrew Stanton & Jim Reardon)

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Slumdog Millionaire (Simon Beaufoy)

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: Let the Right One In

BEST DOCUMENTARY: Man On Wire

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE: WALL-E

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: The Dark Knight (Wally Pfister)

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE: WALL-E (Thomas Newman)

MOST PROMISING PERFORMER: Dev Patel - Slumdog Millionaire

MOST PROMISING DIRECTOR: Tomas Alfredson - Let the Right One In

If you’d like to go back in time a few days and see the 2008 nominees from the Chicago Film Critics Association, read our coverage here from Dec. 15, 2008.

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com brian@hollywoodchicago.com