Chicago film critics circle ‘The Departed’

The Chicago’s film critics gave a trio of year’s best prizes to The Departed picking up Best Feature, director and adapted screenplay. The usual suspects won for acting awards and Emmanuel Lubezki looks like a sure pick for best cinematography at the Oscars this year for Children of Men. Futuristic film
The Fountain won for best original score. Finally Rian Johnson was named most promising filmmaker for Brick. Here are the complete noms and winners (*).

BEST PICTURE
“Babel”
**The Departed**
“Little Miss Sunshine”
“The Queen”
“United 93”

BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM:
“Apocalypto”
**Letters From Iwo Jima**
“Pan’s Labyrinth”
“Tsotsi”
“Volver”

BEST DIRECTOR
Clint Eastwood for “Letters From Iwo Jima”
Stephen Frears for “The Queen”
Paul Greengrass for “United 93”
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu for “Babel”
**Martin Scorsese** for “The Departed”

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
“Babel” -Guillermo Arriaga
“Letters From Iwo Jima” -Iris Yamashita
“Little Miss Sunshine” -Michael Arndt
**The Queen** -Peter Morgan
“United 93” -Paul Greengrass

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
**The Departed** -William Monahan
“Little Children” -Todd Field & Tom Perrotta
“Notes On A Scandal” -Patrick Marber
“A Prairie Home Companion” -Garrison Keillor
“Thank You for Smoking” -Jason Reitman

BEST ACTOR
Leonardo DiCaprio for “The Departed”
Ryan Gosling for “Half-Nelson”
Peter O’Toole for “Venus”
Will Smith for “The Pursuit of Happyness”
**Forest Whitaker** for “The Last King of Scotland”

BEST ACTRESS
Penelope Cruz for “Volver”
Judi Dench for “Notes on a Scandal”
Maggie Gyllenhaal for “Sherrybaby”
**Helen Mirren** for “The Queen”
Meryl Streep for “The Devil Wears Prada”
Kate Winslet for “Little Children”

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Ben Affleck for “Hollywoodland”
**Jackie Earle Haley** for “Little Children”
Eddie Murphy for “Dreamgirls”
Jack Nicholson for “The Departed”
Brad Pitt for “Babel”
Michael Sheen for “The Queen”

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Adriana Barraza for “Babel”
Cate Blanchett for “Notes On a Scandal”
Abigail Breslin for “Little Miss Sunshine”
Toni Collette for “Little Miss Sunshine”
Jennifer Hudson for “Dreamgirls”
**Rinko Kikuchi** for “Babel”

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
“Babel” -Gustavo Santaolalla
**The Fountain** -Clint Mansell
“Letters From Iwo Jima” -Kyle Eastwood and Michael Stevens
“Notes On a Scandal” – Philip Glass
“The Queen” -Alexandre Desplat

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
“Babel” – Rodrigo Prieto
“Children of Men” -**Emmanuel Lubezki**
“The Departed” -Michael Ballhaus
“The Fountain” -Matthew Libatique
“Letters From Iwo Jima” -Tom Stern

BEST DOCUMENTARY
“Deliver Us From Evil”
**An Inconvenient Truth**
“Jesus Camp”
“Shut Up and Sing”
“Wordplay”

MOST PROMISING PERFORMER
Ivana Baquero for “Pan’s Labyrinth”
**Sacha Baron Cohen** for “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan” and “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby”
Shareeka Epps for “Half-Nelson”
Rinko Kikuchi for “Babel”
Keke Palmer for “Akeelah and the Bee”

MOST PROMISING DIRECTOR
**Rian Johnson** for “Brick”
Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris for “Little Miss Sunshine”
Gil Kenan for “Monster House”
Jason Reitman “Thank You for Smoking”
James McTeigue for “V for Vendetta”