Pretentious Film Awards--Winners!

*Denotes Winner
**Denotes First Runner-Up
***Denotes Second Runner-Up

Best Motion Picture of the Year

Let the Right One In***
Milk
Rachel Getting Married*
WALL-E
The Wrestler**

Best Achievement in Direction

Let the Right One In - Tomas Alfredson**
Milk - Gus Van Sant
Rachel Getting Married - Jonathan Demme*
WALL-E - Andrew Stanton
The Wrestler - Darren Aronofsky***

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

Josh Brolin - W.***
Richard Jenkins - The Visitor
David Kross - The Reader
Sean Penn - Milk*
Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler**
(This was an extremely tight race for me between Sean Penn and Mickey Rourke. They are very evenly matched, in my estimation.)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

Anne Hathaway - Rachel Getting Married*
Sally Hawkins - Happy-Go-Lucky**
Melissa Leo - Frozen River***
Michelle Williams - Wendy and Lucy
Kate Winslet - The Reader

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

James Franco - Milk
Bill Irwin - Rachel Getting Married**
Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight*
Eddie Marsan - Happy-Go-Lucky***
Michael Shannon - Revolutionary Road

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

Hiam Abbas - The Visitor
Penelope Cruz - Vicky Cristina Barcelona***
Viola Davis - Doubt**
Rosemarie Dewitt - Rachel Getting Married*
Lena Olin - The Reader

Best Original Screenplay

Mike Leigh - Happy-Go-Lucky
Dustin Lance Black - Milk***
Jenny Lumet - Rachel Getting Married*
Charlie Kaufman - Synecdoche, New York
Andrew Stanton - WALL-E**

Best Adapted Screenplay

Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan - The Dark Knight
John Patrick Shanley - Doubt
John Ajvide Lindqvist - Let the Right One In*
David Hare - The Reader***
Kelly Reichardt and Jonathan Raymond - Wendy and Lucy**


Best Acting by an Ensemble Cast

Burn After Reading
George Clooney, Richard Jenkins, Brad Pitt, John Malkovich, Frances McDormand, JK Simmons, Tilda Swinton

Milk***
Josh Brolin, Joseph Cross, Victor Garber, Lucas Grabeel, James Franco, Emile Hirsch, Diego Luna, Sean Penn, Allison Pill

Rachel Getting Married* Tunde Adebimpe, Anna Deveare Smith, Rosemarie Dewitt, Anisa George, Anne Hathaway, Bill Irwin, Debra Winger, Mather Zickel

Synecdoche, New York**
Hope Davis, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Catherine Keener, Samantha Morton, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Dianne Wiest, Michelle Williams

The Visitor
Hiam Abbas, Danai Jekesai Gurira, Richard Jenkins, Haaz Sleiman

Technical Awards (I don't reward any sound categories, except Best Original Song/Score. I don't feel qualified to judge sound editing/mixing, etc.)

Best Achievement in Cinematography

Australia - Mandy Walker
The Dark Knight - Wally Pfister***
Rachel Getting Married - Declan Quinn**
Stop Loss - Chris Menges
The Wrestler - Maryse Alberti*

Best Achievement in Editing

Burn After Reading - Emmanuel Lubezki
Let the Right One In - Tomas Alfredson and Dino Jonsäter*
Rachel Getting Married - Tim Squyres
WALL-E - Stephen Schaffer*
The Wrestler - Andrew Weisblum**

Best Art Direction

Australia - Ian Gracie and Karen Murphy***
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Kelly Curley and Tom Reta
Revolutionary Road - Kristi Zea and Debra Schutt
Synecdoche, New York - Adam Stockhausen*
WALL-E - Zoe Boxer, Anthony B. Christov and Jason Deamer**

Best Costume Design

Australia - Catherine Martin*
Burn After Reading - Mary Zophres
Milk - Danny Glicker**
Rachel Getting Married - Susan Lyall
Revolutionary Road - Albert Wolsky***

Best Original Score

The Dark Knight - Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard
Milk - Danny Elfman***
The Reader - Nico Muhly**
Slumdog Millionaire - A.R. Rahman
WALL-E - Thomas Newman*

Best Original Song

Forgetting Sarah Marshall - "Dracula's Lament"
Slumdog Millionaire - "Jai Ho"**
The Wrestler - "The Wreslter"*


Awards Tally

Rachel Getting Married - 6 Wins
The Wrestler - 2 Wins
Australia - 1 Win
The Dark Knight - 1 Win
Let the Right One In - 1 Win
Milk - 1 Win
WALL-E - 1 Win

Full Top Ten List of 2008

1. Rachel Getting Married (dir. Jonathan Demme)
2. The Wrestler (dir. Darren Aronofsky)
3. Let the Right One In (dir. Tomas Alfredson)
4. Milk (dir. Gus Van Sant)
5. WALL-E (dir. Andrew Stanton)
6. Synecdoche, New York (dir. Charlie Kaufman)
7. Happy-Go-Lucky (dir. Mike Leigh)
8. The Reader (dir. Stephen Daldry)
9. Wendy and Lucy (dir. Kelly Reichardt)
10. The Visitor (dir. Thomas McCarthy)