The New York Film Critics Circle has named Milk its best film of 2008 and honoured that film's Sean Penn and Josh Brolin with the actor and supporting actor awards.

Sally Hawkins was named best actress for Happy-Go-Lucky and Penelope Cruz best supporting actress for Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Like Penn, both women were awarded the same prizes by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association yesterday.

Best foreign film went to Cristian Mungiu's 4 Months, 3 Weeks And 2 Days while James Marsh's Man On Wire, also winner with the LA critics, maintained its awards season run with the best documentary prize.

Wall-E was named best animated feature while Courtney Hunt took the best first feature honours for Frozen River. Rounding out the awards were Jenny Lumet's screenplay for Rachel Getting Married and Anthony Dod Mantle's cinematography on Slumdog Millionaire.

The Circle's awards ceremony will take place at Strata in New York City on January 5.

The winners of the New York Film Critics Circle are:

Film: Milk
Director: Mike Leigh Happy-Go-Lucky
Actor: Sean Penn Milk
Actress: Sally Hawkins Happy-Go-Lucky
Supporting Actor: Josh Brolin Milk
Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Screenplay: Jenny Lumet Rachel Getting Married
Documentary: Man On Wire
Animated Film: Wall-E
Foreign Film: 4 Months, 3 Weeks And 2 Days
First Film: Courtney Hunt Frozen River
Cinematographer: Anthony Dod Mantle Slumdog Millionaire

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