2008 Golden Dolphin Awards

Best Picture:
Darren Aronofsky, Scott Franklin – The Wrestler
Céan Chaffin, Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Bruce Cohen, Dan Jinks – Milk
Jay Duplass, Mark Duplass – Baghead
Mark Roybal, Scott Rudin – Doubt

Best Director:
Darren Aronofsky – The Wrestler
David Fincher – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Tarsem Singh – The Fall
Ben Stiller – Tropic Thunder
Gus Van Sant – Milk

Best Actor:
Sean Penn - Milk
Brad Pitt – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Sam Rockwell – Snow Angels
Mickey Rourke – The Wrestler
Steve Zissis – Baghead

Best Actress:
Cate Blanchett – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Sally Hawkins – Happy-Go-Lucky
Melissa Leo – Frozen River
Meryl Streep – Doubt
Kate Winslet – The Reader

Best Supporting Actor:
Tom Cruise – Tropic Thunder
Robert Downey Jr. – Tropic Thunder
Philip Seymour Hoffman – Doubt
Heath Ledger – The Dark Knight
Brad Pitt – Burn After Reader

Best Supporting Actress:
Amy Adams – Doubt
Viola Davis – Doubt
Taraji P. Henson – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frances McDormand – Burn After Reading
Samantha Morton – Synedoche, New York

Best Ensemble Performance:
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Doubt
Milk
Synecdoche, NY
Tropic Thunder

Best Original Screenplay:
Dustin Lance Black – Milk
Etan Cohen, Ben Stiller, Justin Theroux - Tropic Thunder
Jay Duplass, Mark Duplass – Baghead
Charlie Kaufman - Synecdoche, NY
Robert D. Siegel – The Wrestler

Best Adapted Screenplay:
David S. Goyer, Christopher Nolan, Jonathon Nolan – The Dark Knight
David Gordon Green - Snow Angels
David Hare - The Reader
Eric Roth, Robin Swicord – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
John Patrick Shanley - Doubt

Best Cinematography:
Maryse Alberti – The Wrestler
Roger Deakins – Doubt
Claudio Miranda – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Wally Pfister – The Dark Knight
Colin Watkinson – The Fall

Best Editing:
Kirk Baxter, Angus Wall – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Greg Hayden – Tropic Thunder
Lee Smith – The Dark Knight
Dylan Tichenor – Doubt
Andrew Weisblum – The Wrestler

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

Best Costume Design:
Lindy Hemming - The Dark Knight
Deborah Hopper - Changeling
Eiko Ishioka - The Fall
Ann Roth – Doubt
Jaqueline West – 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, Kazushiro Tsuji – Tropic Thunder

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

Best 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
John Williams – Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

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

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

Win/Nomination Tally:
4/14 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
4/10 Doubt
0/9 Tropic Thunder
3/8 The Dark Knight
3/8 The Wrestler
1/5 Milk
0/5 Synecdoche, NY
2/4 The Fall
0/3 Baghead
0/3 Burn After Reading
0/2 Snow Angels
0/2 The Reader
0/1 Cassandra’s Dream
0/1 Changeling
0/1 Frozen River
1/1 Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
0/1 Happy-Go-Lucky
0/1 Hunger
0/1 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
0/1 Lake of Fire
0/1 Man on Wire
0/1 Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired
0/1 Slumdog Millionaire
0/1 Step Brothers
0/1 Young@Heart

Fun Factoids:
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button received a record 14 Dolphin nominations this year, beating the previous record of 12 held by There Will Be Blood. Doubt, with 10 nominations, is also the third most nominated film in Dolphin history. Tropic Thunder is the film that has received the most nominations (9) without receiving a Best Picture nomination. Doubt received the most nominations without a Best Director nomination.

There are a handful of people who were nominated at the Dolphins last year and this year. They are:

Roger Deakins is nominated this year for his work on Doubt, his third nomination for Best Cinematography. He was nominated for Best Cinematography last year for both The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and No Country for Old Men.

Kathleen Kennedy is nominated this year for Best Picture for producing The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, her second nomination. She was previously nominated last year for Best Picture for producing The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

Philip Seymour Hoffman is nominated this year for Best Supporting Actor, his second nomination. He was nominated last year for Best Actor for his performance in Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead.

Samantha Morton is nominated this year for her work in Synecdoche, NY, her second Best Supporting Actress nomination. She was previously nominated for Best Supporting Actress in Control.

Brad Pitt was nominated last year for Best Picture as one of the producers on The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, this year he adds two more nominations totaling three Dolphin nominations. He is the second person to secure nominations in both the Lead and Supporting categories. His co-star in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Casey Affleck, was the first. Affleck went on to win the Best Supporting Actor Dolphin. Furthermore, Brad Pitt is the first and only person to be nominated in the acting and Best Picture categories at the Dolphins.

Scott Rudin was nominated this year for Best Picture for producing Doubt, his second nomination in that category. He was nominated last year for No Country for Old Men.

Dylan Tichenor was nominated this year for his work on Doubt, his third nomination for Best Editing. Last year, he won his first Dolphin for editing There Will Be Blood and was concurrently nominated for co-editing Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.