For the first time in its 34-year history, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association has bestowed its best picture award on an animated film, the Disney/Pixar production Wall-E.
Other surprises included Berlin Film Festival winner Sally Hawkins (above) as best actress for Happy-Go-Lucky, which means that Hawkins is now a potential Oscar contender; Jia Zhangke's 2006 Venice Film Festival-winning Chinese drama Still Life as best foreign-language film and for the year's best cinematography, for Lik Wai Yu; and Happy-Go-Lucky for best screenplay (Mike Leigh, who also directed the film).
Non-surprises were Heath Ledger (above) as best supporting actor for The Dark Knight; James Marsh's widely acclaimed Man on Wire as best documentary; and National Board of Review winner Penélope Cruz as best supporting actress for her fiery, Anna Magnani-esque Señorita in Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona.
Spreading the wealth, the Los Angeles critics chose Waltz with Bashir (above) — not Wall-E — as the year's best animated film. Ari Folman's animated documentary about the nastiness of war — a likely Oscar contender — was the runner-up in the best documentary category as well. (There's at least one precedent for this sort of split: in 2000, Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was voted best film of the year, while Edward Yang's Yi yi / A One and a Two was chosen best foreign-language film.)
Critics' fave Slumdog Millionaire won two awards: best director (Danny Boyle) and best score (A. R. Rahman).
The 2008 Los Angeles Film Critics Awards were dedicated to centenarian filmmaker Manoel de Oliveira.