The Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA) has announced the nominees for the 14th annual Critics’ Choice Awards, placing Disney/Pixar’s WALL’E and Warner Bros.’ The Dark Knight among the pics in the running for Best Feature. The winners will be announced at an awards gala on Thursday, Jan. 8 at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. Cable network VH1 will again broadcast the ceremony Live at 9 p.m. (ET/PT).
WALL’E is also up for Best Animated Feature, along with Disney’s Bolt, DreamWorks Animation’s Kung Fu Panda and Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, and Sony Pictures Classics’ Waltz With Bashir. Disney/Pixar ended up taking last year’s award with the animated comedy-romance Ratatouille. Bashir is also up for Best Foreign-Language Film this year, and both WALL’E and Bolt have a tune in competition for Best Song.
The Dark Knight, Miramax’s Doubt and Fox Searchlight’s Slumdog Millionaire all tied with six nominations each, but Focus Features’ Milk and Paramount Pictures’ The Curious Case of Benjamin Button lead the pack with eight nominations apiece. Milk received nominations for Best Picture, Best Actor (Sean Penn), Best Supporting Actor (James Franco and Josh Brolin), Best Director (Gus Van Sant), Best Writer (Dustin Lance Black), and Best Composer (Danny Elfman). The eight nominations for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button are for Best Picture, Best Actor (Brad Pitt), Best Actress (Cate Blanchett), Best Supporting Actress (Taraji P. Henson), Best Acting Ensemble, Best Director (David Fincher), Best Writer (Eric Roth), and Best Composer (Alexandre Desplat).
2008 Critics’ Choice Awards Nominees:
BEST PICTURE
Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Doubt
Frost/Nixon
Milk
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire
Wall-E
The Wrestler
BEST ACTOR
Clint Eastwood – Gran Torino
Richard Jenkins – The Visitor
Frank Langella – Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn – Milk
Brad Pitt – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke – The Wrestler
BEST ACTRESS
Kate Beckinsale – Nothing But the Truth
Cate Blanchett – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Anne Hathaway – Rachel Getting Married
Angelina Jolie – Changeling
Melissa Leo – Frozen River
Meryl Streep – Doubt
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Josh Brolin – Milk
Robert Downey, Jr. – Tropic Thunder
Philip Seymour Hoffman – Doubt
Heath Ledger – The Dark Knight
James Franco – Milk
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Penelope Cruz – Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis – Doubt
Vera Farmiga – Nothing But the Truth
Taraji P. Henson – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Marisa Tomei – The Wrestler
Kate Winslet – The Reader
BEST ACTING ENSEMBLE
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Doubt
Milk
Rachel Getting Married
BEST DIRECTOR
Danny Boyle – Slumdog Millionaire
David Fincher – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Ron Howard – Frost/Nixon
Christopher Nolan – The Dark Knight
Gus Van Sant – Milk
BEST WRITER (Original or Adapted Screenplay)
Simon Beaufoy – Slumdog Millionaire
Dustin Lance Black – Milk
Peter Morgan – Frost/Nixon
Eric Roth – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
John Patrick Shanley – Doubt
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Bolt
Kung Fu Panda
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
Wall-E
Waltz With Bashir
BEST YOUNG ACTOR/ACTRESS (Under 21)
Dakota Fanning – The Secret Life of Bees
David Kross – The Reader
Dev Petal – Slumdog Millionaire
Brandon Walters – Australia
BEST ACTION MOVIE
The Dark Knight
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Iron Man
Quantum of Solace
Wanted
BEST COMEDY
Burn After Reading
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Role Models
Tropic Thunder
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
BEST PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
John Adams
Recount
Coco Chanel
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
A Christmas Tale
Gomorrah
I’ve Loved You So Long
Let the Right One In
Mongol
Waltz With Bashir
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
I.O.U.S.A.
Man On Wire
Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired
Standard Operating Procedure
Young At Heart
BEST SONG
‘Another Way to Die’ – Jack White and Alicia Keys/Jack White – Quantum of
Solace
‘Down to Earth’ – Peter Gabriel/Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman – WALL’E
‘I Thought I Lost You’ – Miley Cyrus and John Travolta/Miley Cyrus and
Jeffrey Steele – Bolt
‘Jaiho’ – Sukhwinder Singh/A.R. Rahman and Gulzar – Slumdog Millionaire
‘The Wrestler’ – Bruce Springsteen/Bruce Springsteen – The Wrestler
BEST COMPOSER
Alexandre Desplat – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Clint Eastwood – Changeling
Danny Elfman – Milk
Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard –The Dark Knight
A.R. Rahman – Slumdog Millionaire
