The LOVEFiLM Awards 2008

The Dark Knight was the stand-out triumph in the latest LOVEFiLM Awards, winning five of the six categories for which it was nominated.

Christopher Nolan's smash-hit follow-up to Batman Begins grabbed Best Sci-fi/Fantasy and Best Thriller, as well as Best Scene (for where the Joker makes a pencil 'disappear'), Best Supporting Actor for the late Heath Ledger's startling performance, and Best Director for Nolan himself.

The LOVEFiLM Awards are effectively the People's Oscars: each and every category voted on by the LOVEFiLM members in a spree of democratic joy. All the popular Awards categories are present and correct, but instead of deciding on just one Best Film, we split the choice out into the best in each genre.

And in most cases, the category short-lists have 10 options, which gives far more choice to the voter ('Others' on the results grid are the bottom five entries added up).

Iron Man leads a handful of films that scored two wins each, with perhaps a surprise victory for Robert Downey Jr in the Best Actor category, beating off the likes of Mickey Rourke, Brad Pitt and Clint Eastwood.

Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire maintained its popular acclaim with wins in the Best Drama and Best British Film sections. Lovable clean-up-bot WALL-E grabbed Best Animated and Best Family film, and fright-soaked Spanish scare-fare The Orphanage took home Best Foreign Language and Best Horror.

On the TV front, Lost's fanbase remains wide and deep even into its fourth season, fighting off Doctor Who, The Wire and House. But Hugh Laurie didn't leave empty-handed: he held off Dexter's Michael C Hall and won the Best TV Actor gong for an incredible fourth year running.

Elsewhere in the thespian departments, Angelina Jolie won Best Actress comfortably for Changeling, and Glenn Close's TV Actress victory for Damages was similarly clear-cut. Much, much closer was the Supporting Actress category, with Penelope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona) just nicking it from Marisa Tomei (The Wrestler).

The late Heath Ledger, as previously noted, got the expected landslide of votes for his portrayal of Batman's nemesis, but The Dark Knight finally missed out when it came to the Best Quote of 2008: the Joker's sinister, pencil-related "How about a magic trick?" line pipped into second place by In Bruges, and Brendan Gleeson's weary summary of the situation: "Well, here we are in a room with two manky hookers and a racist dwarf."

Get the full list of winners and categories here...

Darren Bignell
darren.bignell@lovefilm.com

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