Best Picture
| 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days | Gran Torino | Silent Light | Synecdoche, | WALL-E |
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| Cristian Mungiu's harrowing Romanian drama about two friends trying to procure an illegal abortion under Communist rule. Trailer. | Clint's back with a vengeance in this moving drama about generational and racial classes that lead to redemption. Solid, American filmmaking at its best. Trailer. | A magisterial masterpiece from Carlos Reygadas that ponders big spiritual questions in virtual silence, while paying homage to Carl Th. Dreyer's "Ordet." Trailer. | Charlie Kaufman's, brilliant, mind bending look at the plight of an artist looking to create an honest and lasting work of art. Trailer. | Two robots meet cute on post-apocalyptic Earth in a silent comedy/political allegory worth of Chaplin and Tati. Trailer. |
Best Director
| Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire | Clint Eastwood, Gran Torino | Charlie Kaufman, Synecdoche, New York | Cristian Mungiu, | Carlos Reygadas, Silent Light |
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| Boyle took elements of Bollywood and popular game shows to fashion a gripping and uplifting narrative. It's a crowd pleaser that never panders. | They don't make 'em like the used to. But Clint Eastwood does | Hollywood's quirkiest screenwriter makes an impressive, sprawling debut, never letting his hugely introspective narrative get out of hand. | Restraint is the key word here. Mungiu keeps us on the edge of our seats simply by observing the action with an unflinching eye. | It's not easy following in the footsteps of Carl Dreyer, but Reygadas pulls it off with breathtaking aplomb. |
Best Actor
| Clint Eastwood, Gran Torino | Michael Fassbender, Hunger | Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon | Sean Penn, Milk | Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler |
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| Eastwood takes his own iconic persona and turns it into something transcendent and deeply moving. | Never has the complete wasting away of a human being been so frighteningly real. It's a fearless performance. | He may not sound just like Richard Nixon, but Langella captures something much more subtle in his bold performance - his essence. | Penn utterly disappears into his role so convincingly, that we almost forget we're watching a performance. | The comeback of the year, and Rourke is perfect as the washed up pro wrestler, Randy "The Ram." |
Best Actress
| Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married | Meryl Streep, Doubt | Kristen Scott Thomas, I've Loved You So Long | Michelle Williams, Wendy and Lucy | Kate Winslet, Revolutionary Road |
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| Hathaway has come a long way since The Princess Diaries, finally getting to showcase her dramatic range a self-centered drug addict whose narcissism threatens to ruin her sister's wedding. | Streep deftly avoids what could have been a stock, villainous portrayal of the stern Sister Aloysius, by digging deep and finding her humanity and the vulnerability beneath her confident veneer. | As a woman newly released from prison after serving 15 years for an unthinkable crime, Kristen Scott Thomas is an astonishing, haunted shell of her usual, regal self. | Williams completely carries Kelly Reichardt's minimalist examination of a regular girl who has fallen through the cracks with her heartbreaking turn as a girl who has lost everything, and only has her beloved dog Lucy for companionship. | It has been a banner year for Winslet, and her turn as April Wheeler, a a young wife who dreams of life beyond the suburbs, is wrenching, career best work. |
Best Supporting Actor
| Philip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt | David Kross, The Reader | Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight | Dev Patel, Slumdog Millionaire | Michael Shannon, Revolutionary Road |
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| Did he or didn't he? Hoffman keeps us guessing with his charming personality that could mask a dark secret. | As a younger version of Ralph Fiennes, 18 year old Kross manages to hold his own while acting opposite Kate Winslet, often in the nude. No small feat that, but he adds a great depth of emotion of an actor far beyond his years. | What more can be said about this performance that hasn't already been said? Ledger is brilliant, creating an iconic, force of nature take on the classic character, and a monstrous portrait of gleeful, chaotic evil. | Newcomer Patel is the heart and soul of Slumdog Millionaire, giving us not only a hero to root for, but a fully realized character whose painful history informs the narrative. | Shannon may not have much screen time in Revolutionary Road, but he makes an indelible impression with his intense turn as an insane mathematician who may just be the only sane person in the film. |
Best Supporting Actress
| Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona | Viola Davis, Doubt | Taraji P.Henson, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button | Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler | Kate Winslet, The Reader |
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| Cruz lights up the screen with this smoldering performance as Javier Bardem's psychotic, bilingual ex-wife. | Davis may only have one scene in the film, but what a scene it is. And she singlehandedly pilfers the entire film with her gut wrenching portrayal of a mother caught between a rock and a hard place. | As Benjamin's vibrant surrogate mother, Henson is both delightful and moving, showcasing great strength and vulnerability. | Tomei opens herself up in an unglamorous performance as an aging stripper faced with a lifetime of loneliness, who falls for Mickey Rourke's broken down wrestler. | Another great Winslet performance in 2008, this time as a Nazi war criminal willing to go to prison rather than reveal a humiliating secret. The complete opposite of her tempestuous turn in Revolutionary Road, Winslet's Hanna is almost childlike as she lets her inner weakness take her over. |
Best Young Performer
| Kåre Hedebrant, Let the Right One In | Michel Joelsas, The Year My Parents Went on Vacation | Lina Leandersson, Let the Right One In | Catinca Untaru, The Fall | Brandon Walters, Australia |
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| As as bullied 12 year old who dreams of revenge, Hedebrant is the perfect embodiment of a lonely adolescent who just wants a friend. | Nearly carrying the entire film by himself, Joelsas' winning performance makes the film the tende coming of age tale that it is. | As an ageless, androgynous vampire, forever frozen at age 12, Leandersson combines childlike innocence with a chilling darkness, while seeming much older than she is. | The endearing little girl at the center of Tarsem's wild fantasy, provides a sense of childlike wonder amidst the darkness. | The film may be overloaded, but newcomer Walters' magnetic turn as the young half caste boy at the heart of the story gives the film a shimmering spark of life. |
Best Original Screenplay
| Cristian Mungiu, 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days | Nick Schenk, Gran Torino | Martin McDonaugh, In Bruges | Jenny Lumet, Rachel Getting Married | Charlie Kaufman, Synecdoche, New York |
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| What it lacks in dialogue, it makes up for with sheer narrative force, taking a simple story and turning it into something profound. The, sparse naturalistic dialogue adds to the film's urgent realism. | Nick Schenk channels Dirty Harry with Clint's cranky grumbles, and takes what could have been a self-parody and makes it into a thing of tender beauty. | McDonaugh's quick Irish wit makes the rapid fire dialogue into a kind of profane poetry. Think of it as an Irish Pulp Fiction, but with an added poignancy. | Lumet's first screenwriting effort is a deeply personal marvel, eschewing sentimentality and making something that is equally painful and heartwarming. | Kaufman is a genius, and never has that been more apparent in this labyrinthine, singularly bizarre piece of sprawling introspection. |
Best Adapted Screenplay
| Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan, The Dark Knight | John Patrick Shanley, Doubt | Peter Morgan, Frost/Nixon | Justin Haythe, Revolutionary Road | Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog Millionaire |
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| "Why so serious?" The Brothers Nolan take a classic comic book and turn it into a stunningly realized, metaphoric look at our times. | Playwright John Patrick Shanley retains his play's haunting ambiguity, with razor sharp dialogue that became an actors' showcase. | Another adaptation of an acclaimed play by the original playwright, finding a humanity in Richard Nixon in a gripping clash of the titans. | Haythe digs to the meat of Richard Yates' famed novel creating a ferocious and elegant look at the death of the American Dream. | A modern day Dickensian fairy tale, perfectly blending a Bollywood fable with an ingenious framing device. |
Best Music Direction
| Love Songs | Paranoid Park | Rachel Getting Married | Slumdog Millionaire | Waltz with Bashir |
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Best Cinematography
| Mandy Walker, Australia |  |
| Claudio Miranda, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button |  |
| Colin Watkinson, The Fall |  |
| Alexis Zabe, Silent Light |  |
| Anthony Dod Mantle, Slumdog Millionaire |  |
Best Art Direction
| Catherine Martin, Australia |  |
| Donald Graham Burt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button |  |
| Ged Clarke, The Fall |  |
| Stephen Scott, Hellboy II: The Golden Army |  |
| Mark Friedberg, Synecdoche, New York |  |
Best Costume Design
| Deborah Hopper, Changeling | Michael O'Connor, The Duchess | Eiko Ishioka, The Fall | Sammy Sheldon, Hellboy II: The Golden Army | Patricia Field, Sex and the City |
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Best Makeup
| The Curious Case of Benjamin Button | Hellboy II: The Golden Army | The Reader | Synecdoche, New York | Tropic Thunder |
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Best Film Editing
Kirk Baxter, | Lee Smith, The Dark Knight | Chris Dickens, Slumdog Millionaire | Robert Frazen, Synecdoche, New York | Andrew Weisblum, The Wrestler |
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Best Foreign Language Film
| 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days | Let the Right One In | Silent Light | Still Life | Waltz with Bashir |
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| Romania | Sweden | Mexico | China | Israel |
Best Documentary Feature
| Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father | Encounters at the End of the World | Man on Wire | Patti Smith: Dream of Life | Waltz with Bashir |
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Best Debut Feature
| Courtney Hunt, Frozen River | Steve McQueen, Hunger | Martin McDonaugh, In Bruges | Joachim Trier, Reprise | Charlie Kaufman, Synecdoche, New York |
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Best Visual Effects
| Cloverfield | The Curious Case of Benjamin Button | The Dark Knight | Hellboy II: The Golden Army | Iron Man |
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Best Sound Editing
| The Dark Knight | Hellboy II: The Golden Army | Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull | Iron Man | WALL-E |
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Nomination Tally
| Synecdoche, New York | 10 |
| Slumdog Millionaire | 9 |
| The Curious Case of Benjamin Button | 7 |
| The Dark Knight | 6 |
| WALL-E | 6 |
| Doubt | 5 |
| Gran Torino | 5 |
| Hellboy II: The Golden Army | 5 |
| Silent Light | 5 |
| 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days | 4 |
| The Fall | 4 |
| Let the Right One In | 4 |
| Rachel Getting Married | 4 |
| The Reader | 4 |
| Revolutionary Road | 4 |
| Waltz with Bashir | 4 |
| The Wrestler | 4 |
| Australia | 3 |
| Milk | 3 |
| Cloverfield | 2 |
| Frost/Nixon | 2 |
| Hunger | 2 |
| In Bruges | 2 |
| Iron Man | 2 |
| Kung Fu Panda | 2 |
| Love Songs | 2 |
| Changeling | 1 |
| Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father | 1 |
| Defiance | 1 |
| The Duchess | 1 |
| Encounters at the End of the World | 1 |
| Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull | 1 |
| I've Loved You So Long | 1 |
| Man on Wire | 1 |
| Paranoid Park | 1 |
| Patti Smith: Dream of Life | 1 |
| Reprise | 1 |
| Sex and the City | 1 |
| Still Life | 1 |
| Tropic Thunder | 1 |
| Vicky Cristina Barcelona | 1 |
| Wendy and Lucy | 1 |
| The Year My Parents Went on Vacation | 1 |