2008 New York Film Critics Winners
There were no major surprises in the list of the New York Film Critics Circle’s 2008 winners — unless you count last year’s Romanian abortion drama 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days being chosen this year’s best foreign film. (Last year, the New York critics’ picked the German drama The Lives of Others — released in Los Angeles in 2006 — as their top foreign film; the previous year, their choice was the French underground drama Army of Shadows, a 1969 release in its country of origin.)
Milk was voted best film, Sean Penn (above) was the best actor for his performance as slain gay leader Harvey Milk, and Josh Brolin was chosen best supporting actor for the same film. Heath Ledger would have been a more likely choice in the supporting category, but Brolin has been getting lots of praise as well.
A middling surprise was Mike Leigh’s best director prize for Happy-Go-Lucky, which was voted the best screenplay award (also Leigh) by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. This is Leigh’s second best director win in New York, following his best director-best film win in 1999 for Topsy Turvy.
Also, Jenny Lumet’s screenplay win for Rachel Getting Married could be considered a minor surprise, and the same could be said about Sally Hawkins‘ (above) being voted best actress — if it weren’t for the fact that only yesterday she received best actress honors from the Los Angeles critics.
Following the announcement of the New York and Los Angeles critics’ winners, it’s become clear that WALL-E (above) will win the best animated feature Oscar, Penélope Cruz is the most likely winner in the best supporting actress category for Vicky Cristina Barcelona, and Happy-Go-Lucky should be taken seriously as a potential nominee in the best direction and best original screenplay categories, while Sally Hawkins is now a strong best actress contender.
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Tags: 4 Months 3 Weeks and 2 Days, Film Awards, Happy-Go-Lucky, Mike Leigh, Milk, New York Film Critics Awards, Penélope Cruz, Sally Hawkins, Sean Penn, WALL-E
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