2008
Babylon A.D.
(2008)
Maurice G. Dantec (novel), Mathieu Kassovitz (screenplay), Éric Besnard (scenario and dialogue), Joseph Simas (screenplay)
1 nomination.
Veteran-turned-mercenary Toorop takes the high-risk job of escorting a woman from Russia to America. Little does he know that she is host to an organism that a cult wants to harvest in order to produce a genetically modified Messiah.
Bangkok Dangerous
(2008)
Jason Richman (screenplay), Oxide Chun Pang, Danny Pang
1 nomination.
Joe is a professional hit man who picks someone off the street to do his errands, and after he is finished kills that person. His next assignment takes him to Bangkok, and as usual, he finds a street-wise guy named Kong to help him. After Kong has a close call and learns who Joe is, Kong asks him to train him and he does. Joe also meets a local girl who is deaf and spends time with her. However, Joe has a hard time keeping his other life from her. It also appears that the person who hired Joe, breaks his rule of complete anonymity and tries to find him.
Changeling
(2008)
J. Michael Straczynski
Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 11 wins & 44 nominations.
Los Angeles, 1928. A single mother returns from work to find her nine-year-old son gone. She calls the LAPD to initiate a search. Five months later, a boy is found in Illinois who fits the description; he says he's her son. To fanfare and photos, the LAPD reunite mother and son, but she insists he's not her boy. The cops dismiss her as either a liar or hysterical. When she joins a minister in his public criticism of the police, they in turn use government power to silence and intimidate her. Meanwhile, a cop goes to a dilapidated ranch to find a Canadian lad who's without legal status; the youth tells a grisly tale. There's redress for murder; is there redress for abuse of power?
Cloverfield
(2008)
Drew Goddard
5 wins & 22 nominations.
A group of friends venture deep into the streets of New York on a rescue mission during a rampaging monster attack.
Defiance
(2008)
Clayton Frohman (screenplay), Edward Zwick (screenplay), Nechama Tec (book)
Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 2 wins & 4 nominations.
Jewish brothers in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe escape into the Belarussian forests, where they join Russian resistance fighters and endeavor to build a village in order to protect themselves and about 1,000 Jewish non-combatants.
Donkey Punch
(2008)
Oliver Blackburn (screenplay), David Bloom (screenplay)
N/A
Things go drastically wrong for a group of British holidaymakers in Spain.
Eagle Eye
(2008)
John Glenn (screenplay), Travis Wright (screenplay), Hillary Seitz (screenplay), Dan McDermott (screenplay), Dan McDermott (story)
3 wins & 8 nominations.
Jerry Shaw is an amiable slacker with an over-achieving twin brother. After his twin dies in an accident, strange things happen to Jerry at a dizzying pace: a fortune shows up in his bank account, weapons are delivered to his flat, and a voice on his cell phone tells him the police are on their way. Jerry follows the voice's instructions, and soon he and a woman he's never met are racing through the city, on to a plane, and eventually to the Pentagon, chased by the FBI. She is Rachel Holloman, a single mom; the voice has threatened her son's death if she doesn't cooperate. The voice seems to know everything. Who is behind it, what is being planned, and why Jerry and Rachel?
Frost/Nixon
(2008)
Peter Morgan (screenplay), Peter Morgan (play)
Nominated for 5 Oscars. Another 19 wins & 67 nominations.
Writer Peter Morgan's legendary battle between Richard Nixon, the disgraced president with a legacy to save, and David Frost, a jet-setting television personality with a name to make, in the story of the historic encounter that changed both their lives. For three years after being forced from office, Nixon remained silent. But in summer 1977, the steely, cunning former commander-in-chief agreed to sit for one all-inclusive interview to confront the questions of his time in office and the Watergate scandal that ended his presidency. Nixon surprised everyone in selecting Frost as his televised confessor, intending to easily outfox the breezy British showman and secure a place in the hearts and minds of Americans (as well as a $600,000 fee). Likewise, Frost's team harbored doubts about their boss' ability to hold his own. But as cameras rolled, a charged battle of wits resulted.
Gomorrah
(2008)
Roberto Saviano (book), Maurizio Braucci (screenplay), Ugo Chiti (screenplay), Gianni Di Gregorio (screenplay), Matteo Garrone (screenplay), Massimo Gaudioso (screenplay), Roberto Saviano (screenplay)
Nominated for 1 Golden Globe. Another 30 wins & 32 nominations.
"Gomorra" is a contemporary Neapolitan mob drama that exposes Italy's criminal underbelly by telling five stories of individuals who think they can make their own compact with Camorra, the area's Mafia.
Gran Torino
(2008)
Nick Schenk (screenplay), Dave Johannson (story), Nick Schenk (story)
Nominated for 1 Golden Globe. Another 20 wins & 12 nominations.
Disgruntled Korean War veteran Walt Kowalski sets out to reform his neighbor, a Hmong teenager who tried to steal Kowalski's prized possession: a 1972 Gran Torino.
In Bruges
(2008)
Martin McDonagh
Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 21 wins & 49 nominations.
Guilt-stricken after a job gone wrong, hitman Ray and his partner await orders from their ruthless boss in Bruges, Belgium, the last place in the world Ray wants to be.
JCVD
(2008)
Mabrouk El Mechri (scenario), Frédéric Benudis (in collaboration with), Mabrouk El Mechri (adaptation), Frédéric Taddeï (original idea), Vincent Ravalec (original idea), Christophe Turpin
2 nominations.
Jean-Claude Van Damme gets involved in a bank robbery with hostages situation and reflects about his life during it.
Lakeview Terrace
(2008)
David Loughery (screenplay), Howard Korder (screenplay), David Loughery (story)
1 nomination.
A LAPD officer will stop at nothing to force out the interracial couple who just moved in next door.
Let the Right One In
(2008)
John Ajvide Lindqvist (screenplay), John Ajvide Lindqvist (novel)
Nominated for 1 BAFTA Film Award. Another 72 wins & 43 nominations.
Oskar, a bullied 12-year old, dreams of revenge. He falls in love with Eli, a peculiar girl. She can't stand the sun or food and to come into a room she needs to be invited. Eli gives Oskar the strength to hit back but when he realizes that Eli needs to drink other people's blood to live he's faced with a choice. How much can love forgive? Set in the Stockholm suburb of Blackeberg in 1982.
Man On Wire
(2008)
Philippe Petit (based on the book "To Reach the Clouds" by)
Won 1 Oscar. Another 45 wins & 11 nominations.
On August 7, 1974, Philippe Petit, a French wire walker, juggler, and street performer days shy of his 25th birthday, spent 45 minutes walking, dancing, kneeling, and lying on a wire he and friends strung between the rooftops of the Twin Towers. Uses contemporary interviews, archival footage, and recreations to tell the story of his previous walks between towers of Notre Dame and of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, his passions and friendships, and the details of the night before the walk: getting cable into the towers, hiding from guards, and mounting the wire. It ends with observations of the profound changes the walk's success brought to Philippe and those closest to him.
Mesrine Part 1: Killer Instinct
(2008)
Jacques Mesrine (book), Abdel Raouf Dafri (scenario), Abdel Raouf Dafri (adaptation), Jean-François Richet (adaptation)
8 wins & 12 nominations.
The story of french gangster Jacques Mesrine, before he was called Public Enemy N°1.
Mesrine Part 2: Public Enemy #1
(2008)
Abdel Raouf Dafri (scenario), Abdel Raouf Dafri (adaptation), Jean-François Richet (adaptation)
7 wins & 13 nominations.
The story of Jacques Mesrine, France's public enemy No. 1 during the 1970s. After nearly two decades of legendary criminal feats - from multiple bank robberies and to prison breaks.
North Face
(2008)
Christoph Silber, Philipp Stölzl, Rupert Henning, Johannes Naber, Benedikt Roeskau (story)
4 wins & 6 nominations.
Based on a true story, North Face is a suspenseful adventure film about a competition to climb the most dangerous rock face in the Alps. Set in 1936, as Nazi propaganda urges the nation's ...
Pathology
(2008)
Mark Neveldine, Brian Taylor
N/A
Harvard Medical School graduate Dr. Ted Grey arrives at one of the nations most prestigious Pathology programs and is quickly noticed by the program's privileged and elite band of pathology interns who invite him into their crowd. It is also here, where he is introduced to Dr. Jake Gallo, who brings him to a secluded wing, where he and four other indulge in their after-hours, extra-curricular activities...finding ways to commit the perfect murder!
Religulous
(2008)
N/A
2 wins & 1 nomination.
Bill Maher interviews some of religion's oddest adherents. Muslims, Jews and Christians of many kinds pass before his jaundiced eye. Maher goes to a Creationist Museum in Kentucky, which shows that dinosaurs and people lived at the same time 5000 years ago. He talks to truckers at a Truckers' Chapel. (Sign outside: "Jesus love you.") He goes to a theme park called Holy Land in Florida. He speaks to a rabbi in league with Holocaust deniers. He talks to a Muslim musician who preaches hatred of Jews. Maher finds the unlikeliest of believers and, in a certain Vatican priest, he even finds an unlikely skeptic.