And the winners are... the EDA Awards for 2008 films

I'm just back from my second critics' awards-oriented event in two days. In addition to being a member of the New York Film Critics Online, I'm vice president of the Alliance of Women Film Journalists, which just announced its 2008 awards and then threw a party to celebrate.

AWFJ is an organization of professional female critics, journalists, reporters and academics; it was founded in 2006 to spotlight both women who make movies and women who write about them. This is our third year of giving awards, and in addition to the usual citations we have special categories for films by, about and of particular interest to women, as well as a couple that never fail to provoke um, interesting conversation. Best Depiction Of Nudity or Sexuality, for example... if you want the skinny on that one, scroll down.

Circa Tabac partners Lee Ringelheim and Brian Michaels provided specialty cocktails inspired by four of this year's film honrees: The Slumdog Millionaire mango martini was my favorite, but I saw a gaggle of guests hoisting unrepentently blue Frozen Rivers. Yum. Speaking of guests, they included Frozen River writer-director Courtney Hunt and co-producer Molly Conners; Trouble the Water producer Tia Lessin; Adriana Shaw, President of WomensFilmNet and one of our sponsors; and a cross section of our esteemed colleagues.

And now, on to the awards:

EDA ANNUAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS

Best Film
Slumdog Millionaire

Best Direction
Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire

Best Screenplay, Original
Wall-E, Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter and Jim Reardon

Best Screenplay, Adapted
Frost/Nixon, Peter Morgan

Best Documentary (Tie)
Man On Wire, James Marsh
Trouble The Water, Tia Lessen, Carl Deal

Best Actress (Tie)
Sally Hawkins, Happy-Go-Lucky
Kate Winslet, The Reader and Revolutionary Road

Best Actress In Supporting Role
Viola Davis, Doubt

Best Actor
Sean Penn, Milk

Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight

Best Ensemble Cast
Rachel Getting Married

Best EditingThe Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall

Best Foreign Film
Tell No One

EDA FEMALE FOCUS AWARDS

Best Woman Director
Courtney Hunt, Frozen River

Best Woman Screenwriter
Jenny Lumet, Rachel Getting Married

Best Breakthrough Performance
Sally Hawkins, Happy-Go-Lucky

Best Newcomer
Misty Upham, Frozen River

Women’s Image Award
Kristin Scott Thomas

The Hanging in There Award for Persistence
Melissa Leo, Frozen River

Actress Defying Age and Ageism
Catherine Deneuve, A Christmas Tale

2008 Outstanding Achievement By A Woman In The Film Industry
Sheila Nevins, Producing/Programming at HBO

Lifetime Achievement Award
Catherine Deneuve

AWFJ Award For Humanitarian Activism
All the Women featured in the documentary Pray The Devil Back To Hell

EDA SPECIAL MENTION AWARDS

AWFJ Hall Of Shame Award
27 Dresses

Actress Most in Need Of A New Agent
Kate Hudson

Movie You Wanted To Love But Just Couldn‘t (Tie)
Mamma Mia!
The Women

Best Of The Fests
Hunger

Unforgettable Moment Award (Tie)
The Dark Knight: The Joker’s first scene
Slumdog Millionaire: Young Jamal jumps into the poop

Best Depiction Of Nudity or Sexuality (Tie)
Elegy
The Reader

Best Seduction
Vicky Cristina Barcelona

The Sequel That Shouldn’t Have Been Made Award (Tie)
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Saw V

The Remake That Shouldn’t Have Been Made Award
The Women

Cultural Crossover Award
Slumdog Millionaire

Bravest Performance Award
Mickey Rourke, The Wrester

Best Leap from Actress to Director Award
Helen Hunt, Then She Found Me

Most Egregious Age Difference Between Leading Man and Love Interest
The Wackness, Ben Kingsley and Mary-Kate Olsen