The 80th National Board of Review Awards, honoring the best in film for 2008, were given on 12 January 2009.

Slumdog Millionaire^[a]

• Burn After Reading
• Changeling
• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• The Dark Knight
• Defiance
• Frost/Nixon
• Gran Torino
• Milk
• WALL-E
• The Wrestler

Best Film:

• Slumdog Millionaire

Best Director:

• David Fincher – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Best Actor:

• Clint Eastwood – Gran Torino

Best Actress:

• Anne Hathaway – Rachel Getting Married

Best Supporting Actor:

• Josh Brolin – Milk

Best Supporting Actress:

• Penélope Cruz – Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Best Screenplay – Original:

• Nick Schenk – Gran Torino

Best Screenplay – Adapted (tie):

• Simon Beaufoy – Slumdog Millionaire
• Eric Roth – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Best Animated Feature:

• WALL-E

Best Foreign Language Film:

• Mongol, Mongolia

Best Documentary Feature:

• Man on Wire

Best Cast:

• Doubt

Breakthrough Male Performances:

• Dev Patel – Slumdog Millionaire

Breakthrough Female Performances:

• Viola Davis – Doubt

Best Directorial Debut:

• Courtney Hunt – Frozen River

Spotlight Award:

• Melissa Leo – Frozen River
• Richard Jenkins – The Visitor

William K. Everson Award for Film History:

• Molly Haskell and Andrew Sarris

Freedom of Expression Award:

• Trumbo

Mongol, Mongolia

• The Edge of Heaven
• Let the Right One In
• Roman de Gare
• A Secret
• Waltz with Bashir

Man on Wire

• American Teen
• The Betrayal – Nerakhoon
• Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father
• Encounters at the End of the World
• Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired

• Frozen River
• In Bruges
• In Search of a Midnight Kiss
• Hallam Foe
• Rachel Getting Married
• Snow Angels
• Son of Rambow
• Vicky Cristina Barcelona
• The Visitor
• Wendy and Lucy