Milk
Despite Milk being snubbed at the Golden Globes, receiving just one nomination for Best Actor, it dominated the San Francisco Film Critics Awards scooping four prizes.
The film, which tells the story of Harvey Milk California's first openly gay elected official, was given the top honours from the San Francisco critics as it won Best Picture of 2008.
The film, which has gained a lot of critical support on the road to the Oscars, also won Best Director for Gus Van Sant and best original Screenplay for Dustin Lance Black.
There was further success for Sean Penn, as he followed up his success from the LA Critics and the New York Critics awards, however he had to share the Best Actor prize with Mickey Rourke.
Rourke's performance in The Wrestler sees a return to form for the actor as the film gained support and momentum on the festival circuit earlier this year and he now looks certain to be nominated for a Best Actor Oscar.
Heath Ledger received yet another posthumous award for his role as The Joker in The Dark Knight as he won Best Supporting Actor, he now looks the favourite to win at both the Golden Globes and of course the Oscars.
The Dark Knight does however find itself in the middle of some controversy after landing just one Golden Globe award for Ledger's performance as many expected it to get recognised in the Best Picture category. The film will be re-released in the new year to gain Oscar support this may also see it break the $1 billion barrier.
Sally Hawkins continued her impressive run of awards success as she collected another Best Actress award for her role as the up-beat Poppy in Mike Leigh's Happy-Go-Lucky that seems to have charmed US audiences. She won Best Actress at the LA Critics Awards and finds herself a serious contender to win Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical at next months Golden Globes.
And there was further success for The Wrestler as Marisa Tomei scooped Best Supporting Actress.
List of Winners
Best picture: "Milk"
Director: Gus Van Sant, "Milk"
Original screenplay: Dustin Lance Black, "Milk"
Adapted screenplay: Peter Morgan, "Frost/Nixon"
Actor: tie, Sean Penn, "Milk"; Mickey Rourke, "The Wrestler"
Actress: Sally Hawkins, "Happy-Go-Lucky"
Supporting actor: Heath Ledger, "The Dark Knight"
Supporting actress: Marisa Tomei, "The Wrestler"
Foreign language film: "Let the Right One In"
Documentary: "My Winnipeg"
Cinematography: "The Dark Knight"
Marlon Riggs Award for courage and vision in the Bay Area film community: Rob Nilsson, filmmaker, in recognition of his 9@NIGHT series of films.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw