The National Board of Review has issued its list of the best films of 2008, placing Disney/Pixar’s WALL’E and Warner Bros.’ The Dark Knight in the top ten. In addition, WALL’E was named Best Animated Feature and Ari Folman’s animated doc Waltz with Bashir was included in the top five foreign films, along with the Swedish vampire flick Let the Right One In.
Filing out the top ten list are the Cohen Bros.’ Burn After Reading, Clint Eastwood’s Changeling, David Fincher’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Ron Howard’s Frost/Nixon, Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino, Gus Van Sant’s Milk and Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler. Fincher nabbed the Best Director award for Button.
In addition to having two films in the top ten, the prolific Eastwood was voted Best Actor for Gran Torino, which also took Best Original Screenplay
(Nick Schenk). Best Actress goes to Anne Hathaway for Rachel Getting Married.
Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire was named Best Film, and the film’s young star, Dev Patel, garnered another nod for Breakthrough Performance. Slumdog screenwriter Simon Beaufoy tied for Best Adapted Screenplay with Eric Roth for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. See the full list of winners at www.nbrmp.org/awards.
