2008 Drew Awards

Best Picture:
Darren Aronofsky, Scott Franklin - The Wrestler
Anthony Bregman, Spike Jonze, Charlie Kaufman, Sidney Kimmel - Synecdoche, NY
Céan Chaffin, Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Stuart Cornfeld, Eric McLeod, Ben Stiller - Tropic Thunder
Mark Roybal, Scott Rudin - Doubt

Best Director:
Darren Aronofsky - The Wrestler
David Fincher - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Christopher Nolan - The Dark Knight
Tarsem Singh - The Fall
Ben Stiller - Tropic Thunder

Best Actor in a Leading Role:
Benicio Del Toro - Che
Sean Penn - Milk
Brad Pitt - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Sam Rockwell - Snow Angels
Mickey Rourke – The Wrestler

Best Actress in a Leading Role:
Cate Blanchett - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Sally Hawkins - Happy-Go-Lucky
Angelina Jolie - Changeling
Melissa Leo - Frozen River
Meryl Streep - Doubt

Best Actor in a Supporting Role:
Josh Brolin - Milk
Robert Downey Jr. - Tropic Thunder
Philip Seymour Hoffman – Doubt
Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight
Brad Pitt - Burn After Reading

Best Actress in a Supporting Role:
Amy Adams – Doubt
Hope Davis - Synecdoche, NY
Viola Davis – Doubt
Frances McDormand - Burn After Reading
Kate Winslet – The Reader

Best Acting Ensemble:
Burn After Reading
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Doubt
Synecdoche, NY
Tropic Thunder

Best Writing, Original Screenplay:
Dustin Lance Black - Milk
Ethan Coen, Joel Coen - Burn After Reading
Etan Cohen, Ben Stiller, Justin Theroux - Tropic Thunder
Charlie Kaufman - Synecdoche, NY
Robert D. Siegel - The Wrestler

Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay:
David Gordon Green - Snow Angels
Dan Gilroy, Tarsem Singh, Nico Soultanakis – The Fall
David Hare - The Reader
Eric Roth, Robin Swicord - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
John Patrick Shanley - Doubt

Best Cinematography:
Luca Bigazzi - Il Divo
Roger Deakins – Doubt
David Higgs - RocknRolla
Claudio Miranda - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Colin Watkinson - The Fall

Best Editing:
Kirk Baxter, Angus Wall - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Elliot Graham - Milk
Dylan Tichenor – Doubt
Cristiano Travaglioli – Il Divo
Andrew Weisblum – The Wrestler

Best Art Direction-Set Decoration:
Donald Graham Burt - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Ged Clarke - The Fall
Mark Friedberg - Synecdoche, NY
Jeff Mann - Tropic Thunder
James Murakami - Changeling

Best Costume Design:
Deborah Hopper - Changeling
Eiko Ishioka - The Fall
Michael O’Connor - Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
Ann Roth - Doubt
Jacqueline West - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Best Sound:
Steve Cantamessa, Jason Oliver - Tropic Thunder
Ken Ishii - The Wrestler
Ed Novick, Lora Hirschberg, Gary Rizzo - The Dark Knight
Ronan Hill - Hunger
David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce, Mark Weingarten - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Best Sound Editing:
Paul Davies - Hunger
Brian Emrich - The Wrestler
Gabriel Gutiérrez - Che
Richard King - The Dark Knight
Ren Klyce - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Best Makeup:
John Caglione Jr., Conor O’Sullivan - The Dark Knight
Greg Cannom - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Carlton Coleman, Heather Plott, Kazuhiro Tsuji - Tropic Thunder

Best Music, Original Score:
Carter Burwell - Burn After Reading
Alexandre Desplat - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Philip Glass - Cassandra’s Dream
James Newton Howard, Hans Zimmer - The Dark Knight
Cezary Skubiszewski - Death Defying Acts

Best Music, Original Song:
“Back and Forth” Written by Jon Brion - Step Brothers
“Little Person” Written by Jon Brion, Charlie Kaufman - Synecdoche, NY
“The Wrestler” Written by Bruce Springsteen – The Wrestler

Best Foreign Language Film:
Mabrouk El Mechri - JCVD
Matteo Garrone - Gomorrah
Celine Scamma - Waterlilies
Steven Soderbergh - Che
Paolo Sorrentino - Il Divo

Best Documentary:
Alex Gibney - Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
Tony Kaye – Lake of Fire
James Marsh - Man on Wire
Stephen Walker - Young@Heart
Marina Zenovich – Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired

Lifetime Achievement Award:
Sergio Sollima
For his contribution to the Western, with his films: The Big Gundown (1966), Face to Face (1967) and Run, Man, Run (1968)











Nomination Tally: (Best Picture Nominees in bold)
14 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
10 Doubt
8 Tropic Thunder
8 The Wrestler
6 The Dark Knight
6 Synecdoche, NY
5 Burn After Reading
5 The Fall
4 Milk
3 Changeling
3 Che
3 Il Divo
2 Hunger
2 The Reader
2 Snow Angels
1 Cassandra’s Dream
1 Death Defying Acts
1 Frozen River
1 Gomorrah
1 Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
1 Happy-Go-Lucky
1 JCVD
1 Lake of Fire
1 Man on Wire
1 Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
1 RocknRolla
1 Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired
1 Step Brothers
1 Waterlilies
1 Young@Heart

Joe Kenny's Thoughts: Well it was a wonderful live ceramony this year at the 2nd annual announcmnet of the Drew Nominees. Always a highly anticipated event, there were many shocking and suprising decisisons from the person behind the drew awards. A major suprise amongst other things was a best picture nomination for synecdoche New York, which drew was not totally blown away by after his viewing and q and a with the writer and director of the film. Ben Button leads the way in nomination but suprisingly doubt finish with the second most nominations, racking up the nominations in almost all categories. It looks like there could be some conflictions as to what five movies get nominated for the best picture at the dolphins this year, as Myself and Drew agreed on only two movies in the best pic category, but we'll have to wait and see what everyone else does.
Things I was Happy to See: The Curious Case and The Wrestler getting its due attention. Carter Burwell and Zimmer and Howard continue to make a good showing. Make-up category was a tough one this year and your noms are all comendable. Loving the synecdoche nom in art direction as the art direction was quite amazing in that film. Like snow angels getting some love in the adapted screenplay cat which is deserves. The orginal screenplay is almost but there is a huge hole, as a a movie im thinking of got unfairly left out. Loving Ledger in supporting actor cat. Del Toro getting the suprised but well deserved nomination, i know drews a big fan and its good to see he got a chance to nominate him. Happy to see Tropic Thunder getting much respect, and glad that synecdoche is getting some love in best pic, it didnt quite the Joe noms for best pic but im very glad the movie isnt being forgot about, i knew i could count on the drews. Oh yeah, Bruce, what a song, glad to see it nominated
Things Im Not Happy About: Robert Downey Jr. in the wrong category, Doubt getting costume nom, good work getting back to the period, but as far as great research and original ideas, it wasnt neccesary becasue the costumes were infront of them if you know what i mean. Roger Deaks not getting a double nomination for his work in Revolutionary Road. No Dark Knight adapted screenplay nomination, how could that be left out, when the reader and the fall get nomintaed? Best Acting Enseble category, get that cop-out thing out of here, if you loved them, give them a big award. Baghead getting completly shafted, thats just not right. One of the best if not the best movie of the year gets left out, how did that happen?
Things I was confused about: RocknRolla cinematography nomination, i dont know about that. No John Williams for Indiana Jones ( just kidding). The Fall gettting a best writing nomination. The Dark Knight getting a director nom for Nolan but not screenplay.
All in all an exciting ceremony and i wait with great anticipation to see the winners. Tough call between Doubt and The Wrestler for best picture i think, but im not ready to make a final decision yet, as its never easy to know what drew dahle is going to do.
Colleen Kenny's Thoughts:
Happy to see: Doubt nominated for best picture and Deakins for Doubt in cinematography. Happy also to see Doubt represented in all the acting categories. Extremely happy to see Hunger get sound nominations. I think this movie was sadly forgotten with the other Dolphin members and the sound is truly effective and amazing. Also, very happy to see RocknRolla get a cinematog nom as I thoroughly enjoyed that film.
Not So Happy to See: Milk not getting nominated for best picture, when it is clearly one of the top five films of the year. Also, disappointed about the Hope Davis nom which should have gone to Samantha Morton. I am ok with Synecdoche getting a best pic nom but I think others deserved it more. Also, disappointed that Fassbender's capabilities did not cultivate a nom despite the FYC.
Hopes for the Drews
I am hoping that Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons does not win best picture (I think it might). I am hoping that Brad Pitt doesn't take home the Drew for best actor (even though I think he will). I am also hoping that Drew does not exaggerate McDormand's performance which was good but not as good as other nominees this year. It should be an exciting Drews.

Award Comments by Colleen Kenny
You'll notice that everything I put that I hope would not happen at the Drew's turned out to happen. In this film critics opinion, not a great year for the Drew's.