The far-out Disney/Pixar love story WALL’E was voted Best Animated Feature by the New York Film Critics Circle, an organization of reviewers from Big Apple-based publications that honors excellence in U.S. and world cinema. The Harvey Milk biopic, Milk, was named Best Picture, and Sean Penn got Best Actor for playing the title role. Sally Hawkins took Best Actress for the indie Happy-Go-Lucky, which earned Mike Leigh the Best Director win.
Last year, the New York critics chose Marjane Satrapi’s French-language autobiographical feature Persepolis as the top toon. This year’s Persepolis is Ari Folman’s Waltz with Bashir from Israel, which has been racking up its share of awards since hitting the festival circuit. Like their Los Angeles counterparts, the Gotham reviewers went with the more commercial release this time around. With these latest accolades, WALL’E has emerged as the frontrunner in the Oscar race. Nominations for the 81st Academy Awards will be announced on Thursday, Jan. 22.
The New York Film Critics Circle also passed over Bashir for Best Foreign-Language Film, opting instead to bestow the honor upon the Romanian drama 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (4 luni, 3 saptam’ni si 2 zile). To view the complete list of 2008 winners, go to www.nyfcc.com/awards.php?year=2008.
