Critics' Choice Awards Got "Milk"

(CBS)  Chalk up another honor for Gus Van Sant's "Milk."

The biopic starring Sean Penn tied with "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" for most nominations - eight - for the 14th Annual Critics' Choice Awards.

"The Dark Knight," "Doubt" and "Slumdog Millionaire" each received six nods.

Nominees were announced Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2008, at a press conference in New York by actress Rosie Perez, movie critics Ben Lyons and Ben Mankiewicz and VH1 President Tom Calderone. The Jan. 8 awards ceremony will be broadcast on VH1.

On Monday, the Producers Guild of America announced that "Milk" is getting the Stanley Kramer Award, which honors pictures taking on provocative social issues. Van Sant also got a tribute for "Milk" last week at the 18th annual Gotham Independent Film Awards. His "Milk" role earned Penn one of the acting nominations for the Independent Spirit Awards, given out in California the night before the Oscars.

In addition to best picture, "Milk" snagged two Critics' Choice nominations for best supporting actor (James Franco and Josh Brolin) and nominations for best actor ( Penn), best director ( Van Sant) best writer (Dustin Lance Black), best acting ensemble and best composer (Danny Elfman).

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" was nominated for best picture, best actor (Brad Pitt), best actress (Cate Blanchett), best supporting actress (Taraji P. Henson), best acting ensemble, best director (David Fincher), best writer (Eric Roth) and best composer (Alexandre Desplat).

The best picture nominees are:

• "Changeling"
  
• "Milk"
  
• "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
  
• "The Dark Knight"
  
• "Doubt"
  
• "Slumdog Millionaire"
  
• "Frost/Nixon"
  
• "The Reader"
  
• "Wall-E"
  
• "The Wrestler"

Nominees for best actor are:

• Sean Penn
  
• Brad Pitt
  
• Clint Eastwood
  
• Richard Jenkins
  
• Frank Langella
  
• Mickey Rourke

Nominated for the best actress award are:

• Kate Beckinsale
  
• Cate Blanchett
  
• Angelina Jolie
  
• Meryl Streep
  
• Anne Hathaway
  
• Melissa Leo

The best supporting actor nominees are:

• James Franco
  
• Josh Brolin
  
• Heath Ledger
  
• Philip Seymour Hoffman
  
• Robert Downey Jr.

Nominated for best supporting actress are:

• Penelope Cruz
  
• Vera Farmiga
  
• Taraji P. Henson
  
• Marisa Tomei
  
• Kate Winslet

Best director nominees are:

• Danny Boyle for "Slumdog Millionaire"
  
• David Fincher for "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
  
• Christopher Nolan for "The Dark Knight"
  
• Ron Howard for "Frost Nixon"
  
• Gus Van Sant for "Milk"

Vying for the best acting ensemble awards are the casts of:

• "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
  
• "The Dark Knight"
  
• "Doubt"
  
• "Milk"
  
• "Rachel Getting Married"

Best writer nods went to:

• Simon Beaufoy for "Slumdog Millionaire"
  
• Peter Morgan for "Frost/Nixon"
  
• Dustin Lance Black for "Milk"
  
• Eric Roth for "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
  
• John Patrick Shanley for "Doubt"

The nominations for best animated feature went to:

• "Bolt"
  
• " Wall-E"
  
• "Kung Fu Panda"
  
• "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa"
  
• "Waltz With Bashir"

The four nominees for best young actor and actress are:

• Dakota Fanning for "The Secret Life of Bees"
  
• David Kross for "The Reader"
  
• Dev Petal for "Slumdog Millionaire"
  
• Brandon Walters for "Australia"

Competing for the best comedy movie award are:

• "Burn After Reading"
  
• "Forgetting Sarah Marshall"
  
• "Role Models"
  
• "Tropic Thunder"
  
• "Vicky Cristina Barcelona"

The nominations for best foreign language film went to:

• "A Christmas Tale"
  
• "Gomorrah"
  
• "I've Loved You So Long"
  
• "Let The Right One In"
  
• "Mongol"
  
• "Waltz With Bashir"

The three nominees for best TV movie are:

• "John Adams"
  
• "Recount"
  
• "Coco Chanel"

Competing for the best action movie award are:

• " Iron Man"
  
• "The Dark Knight"
  
• "Quantum of Solace"
  
• "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull"
  
• "Wanted"

Best song nominations went to:

• " Another Way To Die" (Jack Black and Alicia Keys)
  
• "Down to Earth" (Peter Gabriel and the Soweto Gospel Choir)
  
• "I Thought I Lost You " (John Travolta and Miley Cyrus)
  
• "Jaiho" (A. R. Rahman)
  
• "The Wrestler" ( Bruce Springsteen)

The choices for best documentary are:

• "I.O.U.S.A."
  
• 'Man on Wire"
  
• "Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired"
  
• "Standard Operating Procedure"
  
• "Young @ Heart"

Competing for the best composer award are:

• Danny Elfman
  
• Alexandre Desplat
  
• Clint Eastwood
  
• Hans Zimmer an dJames Newton Howard
  
• A. R. Rahman

The Critics" Choice Awards are given out annually by the Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA) which has more than 200 members in the United States and Canada, representing television, radio and online critics.