On the heels of its Best Picture win from the National Board of Review, Slumdog Millionaire has now picked up the same honor from the Washington Area Film Critics Association, of which I'm a member. (It also won for screenplay, direction, and Dev Patel's "Breakthrough Performance.") As David Carr notes in his indispensible awards-season Carpetbagger blog, the significance is not that we're a particularly influential bunch (we're not), but that the more momentum a film picks up as awards are announced the harder it becomes to derail, and such momentum as there is at this point is all Slumdog's.
The movie was not, incidentally, my vote for best picture, but it's not an outcome I'm unhappy about. (My end-of-the-year-list will come out, counterintuitively enough, at the end of the year. For those who missed it, last year's is here.) WAFCA also went with Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler) for Best Actor, Meryl Streep (Doubt) for Best Actress, and Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight) for Best Supporting Actor. A more surprising pick (though one I was pleased with) was Rosemarie DeWitt for Best Supporting Actress for Rachel Getting Married. The full awards are here.
--Christopher Orr