Writing the Antihero
Making Your Audience Love the Bad Guy
by Jaden
What is an antihero?
An antihero is a villainous main character of your story, a protagonist who is not quite as nice or good or perfect as the archetypical hero. An antihero has serious personality flaws and often may be the stereotypical bad guy, a downright villain, but for some reason, we like him or her. Antiheroes are often criminals and we see the story from their perspective, which causes us to relate.
An archetypical hero may be beautiful, strong, noble, rich, blessed, intelligent, lucky, or have super powers; an antihero will try to get those things in corrupt ways.
The envy and hate a person may feel towards the hero may create an antihero, a less fortunate person driven by sin, basic instinct, or need to ignoble actions.
The antihero can be the underdog who becomes top dog by unscrupulous methods.
A most famous example of an antihero is the character Tony Montana played by Al Pacino in Scarface (1983), a poor Cuban guy with a crazy temper who climbs up to great wealth as a drug dealer, pictured above with his foxy wife played by Michelle Pfeiffer.
Why do you have to make your audience love your antihero?
Your audience has to love your antihero or your script won’t sell. Movies with fully detestable lead characters do not sell.
People do not want to be angered or depressed by a movie, they want to feel charged and rejuvenated. When people go to see a movie, they want relief in some sort of way. If your lead character only makes people feel uncomfortable and frustrated, or they do not relate to him or her at all, you will have a flop of a movie.
The antihero serves the common people by taking action where the rest of us don’t because our good morals and laws prevent us. The antihero reacts to his anger about perceived injustices that may have to do with money, crime, war, bad manners, or relationships, whereas the average person will do nothing. We want this bad guy to succeed because we are secretly angry too, but we can’t do anything about it.
The antihero serves a very important part of society, filling a void in our lives, the void where we feel powerless. The antihero makes us feel like something right is being done to equalize things, even if it is wrong.
The antihero is our hero because he is doing what no one else wants to do and he takes all the heat for it.
How do you write your antihero into your script so that your audience will love him or her?
By telling the story from your villainous antihero’s perspective, the audience is forced to relate with him or her on some level. You must show why your antihero became the way he did, why he does what he does, and give the audience a reasonable answer to which we can all relate.
The antihero must have traits to which the audience can relate. The antihero may have a family he is trying to save, protect, or support. The antihero may have basic needs that everyone has, trying to make money to eat and support himself. The antihero may have a love interest who is his weakness — we can all relate to being in love.
No matter how bad you make your antihero, as long as he or she has personality traits and life circumstances to which the audience can relate, you can write a successful antihero.
The motivations of your antihero have to be something to which your audience can relate. Wanting money, power, living comforts, and love are some of the most common motivations with which we can empathize.
As the antihero is doing bad things, he must be punished, so don’t forget to punish your antihero. If he doesn’t get punished, then he is just another bad guy, an antagonist, and your audience will hate (and envy) him for getting away with it, which is not good if you want to make money as a screenwriter.
The audience must sympathize with your antihero.
When you write your story for your antihero, imagine that the audience is a court jury and you are the antihero’s defense attorney. It is your duty to convince the jury, that despite all the bad things your client has done, he doesn’t deserve to be punished. And why he doesn’t deserve to be punished (even though he will get punished) is because your jury audience can relate to the motivations of why he did what he did. If you can’t make the jury understand his perspective, you have just another loser creep on the stand that everyone wants to give the death penalty, and that my friend, is not a good antihero and not a financially successful movie either, and you have failed as a defense attorney and as a writer because your client is just so bad and inhuman that no one can relate to him, nobody likes him.
Ultimately, your lead character, whether good or bad, has to win a popularity contest. The majority of people must like him. That’s what movie sales are, they are the public saying, yeah, we love that one, we love that guy. Blockbuster hits are the winners of popularity contests. Love it or hate it, that’s just the way it is. The most popular guy or gal is not necessarily a good person, but it is the person who is most liked.
A well-written antihero will evoke thoughts from the audience like these :
That’s a bad guy, but I can understand why he does what he does. I wouldn’t want to be on his bad side, but I would sure like him on my team. I secretly love him and sometimes wish I was him, but I probably wouldn’t admit that to anyone.
Who are your favorite antiheroes?
Please share in the comments section.
Like this article? Other ScreenwritingforHollywood articles you may like are:
Turning Bad Guys into Good Characters
15 New Script Reviews About 15 Old Movies
A Discussion of Unusual Movie Scripts and Marketability
by Jaden
When you write, it is good to keep in mind what is the most important outcome for you: a unique exciting groundbreaking script or a mass appeal marketable movie? True originality and marketability often do not cross paths.
The movies listed here are examples of good scripts that are hard sells because they don’t fit into the blockbuster movie box.
Bubba Ho-tep (2002)
Really cool and weird movie Bubba Ho-tep was made by writer-director Don Coscarelli, derived from a short story by Joe R. Lansdale. A friend wanted to watch this movie and showed me the cover that looked like some silly zombie movie (not my favorite genre), but since all of his other recommendations were great, I agreed to watch it. 
Pleasantly surprised, this movie was bizarre and awesome.
There is an old guy who thinks he is Elvis (maybe he is, maybe he isn’t, we never really know, the story is plausible). He is in a rest home where old people are, of course, dying. The movie shows us Elvis’s world from his demented old man perspective, which therefore makes things mysteriously fantastic, yet believable.
The mystery to Elvis is: how are all these old people dying? The answer he finds is that this cursed mummy who was accidentally dumped into a nearby river comes to feed on them, sucking out their soul. What better place to eat souls than a place with helpless dying old people, right?
Although it sounds strange, the clever script does a great job of taking us into the mind of looney old lonely people in retirement homes, and for that it is actually a beautiful moving story about getting old, being ignored by loved ones, and dying. The senior citizen issues are explored in an unusual and fun way for young or old people.
Why is Bubba Ho-tep not a blockbuster?
- Genre distortion.
Phil the Alien (2004)
Rob Stefaniuk writes, directs, and stars in the lead role as Phil the Alien. You know what? He does such a good job of writing for and being an alien that I think Mr.Stefaniuk actually is an alien.
I won’t spoil any of this strange story by telling you too much. It involves a local bar, a drunk band that goes nowhere, government secret ops, an alien of course, some local hicks, and certain hilarious inspirations by C.S. Lewis’s book that was made into the movie: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005), as well as other famous books and movie references. That’s all I am going to tell you.
This script is really weird. People on IMDB have rated it rather low, 5 out of 10… boring people! Probably not the kind of people with whom you want to go out and have a raging good time, because that is what this movie is: absolute silliness. The movie appears to be low budget: please don’t let that turn you off; it is a goofy entertaining good movie script!
Why is Phil the Alien not a blockbuster?
- Low budget and very specific humor style that does not appeal to everyone.
The Dead Girl (2006)
The Dead Girl, a relatively unknown movie, stars none-other than the very well known actor Brittany Murphy who recently passed away at 32 years old due to cardiac arrest on December 20, 2009. It is always eerie the irony of what actors play in their movies and what happens to them in their real lives.
I think Christopher Reeves playing Superman and then becoming quadriplegic is one of the worst Hollywood ironies of all time. Click here for an interesting article about the Superman Curse. I watched Superman as a very little girl and just loved him.
Totally getting derailed on movie roles irony… sorry.
You don’t know that Brittany plays the dead girl until the very last sequence of the movie. You don’t even see her until the end due to the script’s unique story structure.
The story opens with the story of the very odd homebody girl who finds the dead girl and dates some creepy local guy who is intrigued by what she found. Then we cut to various other people who have something to do with the dead girl: the coroner who thinks it is her long lost missing sister, the murderer’s wife, the prostitute friend of the dead girl, the long lost mother, the dead girl’s daughter, the murderer, and so on. Each person has his or her own personal relationship with the dead girl that takes place within their own tale.
It is a fantastic script, twisted, and dark.
I don’t think you can have a runaway blockbuster movie hit with this type of writing structure because it is too disjointed for most people to enjoy, but it is a good study for you to open your mind to other possible story structures.
The Dead Girl is written and directed by Karen Moncrieff and has an all star cast: Giovanni Ribisi, Rose Byrne, James Franco, Mary Steenburgen, Toni Collette, Marcia Gay Harden, Josh Brolin, Kerry Washington and more.
The Dead Girl is not a horror movie, as the title may suggest, it is a murder mystery drama that takes you on a psychological journey through the emotions and effects of death and murder on people.
Why is The Dead Girl not a blockbuster?
- There is no singular hero to follow and the story structure is broken up into fragmented vignettes.
What all of these movies have in common is that they are not classic Hollywood writing styles and they do not immediately jump off the shelves to most people. It is hard to market them because they are different from the norm and what you expect; they don’t easily fit into one genre category.
My movie examples above are not “high concept” films.
High concept films, you can sum up in one word or one sentence, like: Titanic or Snakes on a Plane or Armageddon, the title says it all. With blockbusters like these, you know what you are going to get, you can expect to have a hero, some background history, and closure at the end of the film.
With the films I have highlighted in this post, the titles are just one portion of the unexpected things you will experience.
It is good to watch movies like these to understand and recognize the difference between blockbusters and the financially less successful films. Pay attention to story structure, topics, and dialog; how you choose to tell your story determines the financial success of it.
The further away you get from basic story-telling structure, one genre, and appeasing the masses with a widely accepted humor, the less money you can expect to make.
Every now and then, there is someone who breaks the mold, like Tarantino, but Tarantino is extremely well studied in movies, he purposefully and intelligently plays with genres, humor, and he always has a hero.
Like this topic?
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When Science Fiction Becomes Reality
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Spank David Lynch, That Naughty Boy
Jaden’s Picks for the 82nd Academy Awards
Here are the Nominees for the 82nd Academy Awards!
For whom would you vote?
Best Picture
- “Avatar” James Cameron and Jon Landau, Producers
- “The Blind Side” Nominees to be determined
- “District 9” Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham, Producers
- “An Education” Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey, Producers
- “The Hurt Locker” Nominees to be determined
- “Inglourious Basterds” Lawrence Bender, Producer
- “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Lee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness and Gary Magness, Producers
- “A Serious Man” Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, Producers
- “Up” Jonas Rivera, Producer
- “Up in the Air” Daniel Dubiecki, Ivan Reitman and Jason Reitman, Producers
JADEN’S PICK: “Avatar” James Cameron and Jon Landau, Producers
Writing (Original Screenplay)
- “The Hurt Locker” Written by Mark Boal
- “Inglourious Basterds” Written by Quentin Tarantino
- “The Messenger” Written by Alessandro Camon & Oren Moverman
- “A Serious Man” Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
- “Up” Screenplay by Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, Story by Pete Docter, Bob Peterson, Tom McCarthy
JADEN’S PICK: “Inglourious Basterds” Written by Quentin Tarantino
Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
- “District 9” Written by Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell
- “An Education” Screenplay by Nick Hornby
- “In the Loop” Screenplay by Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche
- “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher
- “Up in the Air” Screenplay by Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner
JADEN’S PICK: “District 9″ Written by Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell
(Precious is a close runner up though.)
One of the nominated movies, I won’t say which one, I thought was the worst movie I have seen in ages and can’t believe all the accolades it is getting. Strong concept, but nothing interesting happens in the whole dang movie. All the main characters are snobby, empty, boring, nauseating, no redeeming qualities, and so full of themselves, which seems to reflect upon the writer/director; material winners, soul losers. Talk about uninspiring! Uhg.
Point is, always forge ahead because there is a market for you somewhere at the top, whatever your topic or style is, even if certain people think you suck sulfur vapors, other people will think you are the greatest thing ever. Never be derailed by someone who doesn’t like your work. We all have different tastes.
JADEN’S ACTOR PICKS:
Let me also add some knockout performances this year by…
Christoph Waltz in “Inglourious Basterds”
Gabourey Sidibe in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
Mo’Nique in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
Most Famous PG Underwear Scenes in Cinema: Readers’ Choice
by Jaden
As a follow up to: Most Famous PG Underwear Scenes in Cinema, the following PG panties scenes have been selected by the Screenwriting for Hollywood readers.
The first two favorite PG underwear movie scene selections, Charlie’s Angels and Weird Science, are from Melissa of Writing Forward.
Charlie’s Angels (2000)
Writing credits: Ivan Goff, Ryan Rowe, Ed Solomon, John August, Ben Roberts
At the time the modern Charlie’s Angels movies came out, people in Hollywood expressed all sorts of discontent over nothing really in particular, just saying blanket statements like, “It was alright, not that great.” I don’t understand this. The stunts, cinematography, music, and playful characters thoroughly entertained me. I figure it must be a Hollywood thing.
This panties scene of Cameron Diaz, playing as character Natalie Cook, is one of her signature moments in cinema that make us adore her.
Cameron’s character has a dream that she is like Marilyn Monroe or Madonna, doing the Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend / Material Girl formal and fabulous dance with many handsome suited men.
She wakes up in a good mood.
Wearing Fruit of the Loom’s superhero boys’ underwear Underoos, Cameron Diaz makes her bed and dances goofily around her room in front of the mirror. A delivery man comes to the door.
Weird Science (1985)
Weird Science was written and directed by 1980s movie superstar John Hughes.
1980s bombshell Kelly LeBrock plays Lisa, the creation of two high school nerdy boys.
If I remember correctly, and someone correct me if I am wrong, the image enclosed here of Kelly LeBrock in her panties is the moment she first comes on scene and comes into real life, which further illustrates a young man’s lust for girls in panties and how nudity and hardcore sex scenes are not necessarily as sexy as underwear scenes.
The next best movie underwear scene selection, There Will Be Blood, is from Shane of Understanding in a Car Crash.
There Will Be Blood (2007)
Shane wrote:
Although it’s not the type of underwear we are used to… Daniel Day Lewis as Daniel Plainview swims in the ocean and then sits out in the sun, on the beach, with his ‘brother’. Both men are wearing “britches” I guess you could call them? Like those old pajamas that you unbutton the back in order to restroom. He made long johns look GOOOOOODD.
As often is the case with memorable underwear scenes, the details about it are not written into the script.
In There Will Be Blood, the script does not mention their undergarments in this scene, but writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson brought forth the fine details of this impressionable image regardless.
The script reads:
“They rise up, naked, out of the water and move to their clothes and their HORSES. HOLD THIS MOMENT.”
The next three sexy PG panties movie scene selections, Crossroads, Hollow Man, and Deep Blue Sea, are from Tom.
Hollow Man (2000)
Hollow Man is an interesting concept for a script, written by Andrew W. Marlowe and Gary Scott Thompson, directed by Paul Verhoeven.
“Elisabeth Shue is Linda Foster, a scientist who is working on a serum to make people invisible. When another scientist tries the serum and becomes invisible his colleagues figure another way to bring him back to the normal world.” – M Sanchero
In this particular scene shown, Elisabeth Shue is sleeping when the invisible colleague, whose personality is also affected by the serum, starts having his way with her.
Tom writes about this scene, “very hot.”
Deep Blue Sea (1999)
Directed by Renny Harlin, Deep Blue Sea was written by Duncan Kennedy, Donna Powers, and Wayne Powers.
Saffron Burrows plays Dr. Susan McCallister who gets into her panties to electrocute a shark.
People refer to this scene as a classic Hollywood gratuitous panties moment in film, but Tom and many other men love it; no need for explanation, just get the girls into their panties.
Crossroads (2002/I)
In searching for this image of Britney Spears in panties from the Crossroads movie, I saw way too many paparazzi fully-shaved-beaver shots of her. Apparently the girl does not ever wear underwear, so doing a lingerie movie scene for Britney was certainly of no moral issue as it is for some other actresses.
Crossroads was directed by Tamra Davis and written by Shonda Rhimes. Women love lingerie too.
And The Nominees Are…
Here are the Screenplay, Actor, and other Nominations for the 81st Academy Awards that will air February 22, 2009.
______________wireimage.com___________________'Tis Kiss-Off season: Brad Pitt and Sean Penn duke it out.
Adapted screenplay
- “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.), Screenplay by Eric Roth, Screen story by Eric Roth and Robin Swicord
- “Doubt” (Miramax), Written by John Patrick Shanley
- “Frost/Nixon” (Universal), Screenplay by Peter Morgan
- “The Reader” (The Weinstein Company), Screenplay by David Hare
- “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Screenplay by Simon Beaufoy
Original screenplay
- “Frozen River” (Sony Pictures Classics), Written by Courtney Hunt
- “Happy-Go-Lucky” (Miramax), Written by Mike Leigh
- “In Bruges” (Focus Features), Written by Martin McDonagh
- “Milk” (Focus Features), Written by Dustin Lance Black
- “WALL-E” (Walt Disney), Screenplay by Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon, Original story by Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter
Best motion picture of the year
- “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.), A Kennedy/Marshall Production, Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall and Ceán Chaffin, Producers
- “Frost/Nixon” (Universal), A Universal Pictures, Imagine Entertainment and Working Title Production, Brian Grazer, Ron Howard and Eric Fellner, Producers
- “Milk” (Focus Features), A Groundswell and Jinks/Cohen Company Production, Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen, Producers
- “The Reader” (The Weinstein Company), A Mirage Enterprises and Neunte Babelsberg Film GmbH Production, Anthony Minghella, Sydney Pollack, Donna Gigliotti and Redmond Morris, Producers
- “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), A Celador Films Production, Christian Colson, Producer
Performance by an actor in a leading role
- Richard Jenkins in “The Visitor” (Overture Films)
- Frank Langella in “Frost/Nixon” (Universal)
- Sean Penn in “Milk” (Focus Features)
- Brad Pitt in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.)
- Mickey Rourke in “The Wrestler” (Fox Searchlight)
Performance by an actor in a supporting role
- Josh Brolin in “Milk” (Focus Features)
- Robert Downey Jr. in “Tropic Thunder” (DreamWorks, Distributed by DreamWorks/Paramount)
- Philip Seymour Hoffman in “Doubt” (Miramax)
- Heath Ledger in “The Dark Knight” (Warner Bros.)
- Michael Shannon in “Revolutionary Road” (DreamWorks, Distributed by Paramount Vantage)
Performance by an actress in a leading role
- Anne Hathaway in “Rachel Getting Married” (Sony Pictures Classics)
- Angelina Jolie in “Changeling” (Universal)
- Melissa Leo in “Frozen River” (Sony Pictures Classics)
- Meryl Streep in “Doubt” (Miramax)
- Kate Winslet in “The Reader” (The Weinstein Company)
Performance by an actress in a supporting role
- Amy Adams in “Doubt” (Miramax)
- Penélope Cruz in “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” (The Weinstein Company)
- Viola Davis in “Doubt” (Miramax)
- Taraji P. Henson in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.)
- Marisa Tomei in “The Wrestler” (Fox Searchlight)
Best animated feature film of the year
- “Bolt” (Walt Disney), Chris Williams and Byron Howard
- “Kung Fu Panda” (DreamWorks Animation, Distributed by Paramount), John Stevenson and Mark Osborne
- “WALL-E” (Walt Disney), Andrew Stanton
Achievement in art direction
- “Changeling” (Universal), Art Direction: James J. Murakami, Set Decoration: Gary Fettis
- “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.), Art Direction: Donald Graham Burt, Set Decoration: Victor J. Zolfo
- “The Dark Knight” (Warner Bros.), Art Direction: Nathan Crowley, Set Decoration: Peter Lando
- “The Duchess” (Paramount Vantage, Pathé and BBC Films), Art Direction: Michael Carlin, Set Decoration: Rebecca Alleway
- “Revolutionary Road” (DreamWorks, Distributed by Paramount Vantage), Art Direction: Kristi Zea, Set Decoration: Debra Schutt
Achievement in cinematography
- “Changeling” (Universal), Tom Stern
- “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.), Claudio Miranda
- “The Dark Knight” (Warner Bros.), Wally Pfister
- “The Reader” (The Weinstein Company), Chris Menges and Roger Deakins
- “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Anthony Dod Mantle
Achievement in costume design
- “Australia” (20th Century Fox), Catherine Martin
- “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.), Jacqueline West
- “The Duchess” (Paramount Vantage, Pathé and BBC Films), Michael O’Connor
- “Milk” (Focus Features), Danny Glicker
- “Revolutionary Road” (DreamWorks, Distributed by Paramount Vantage), Albert Wolsky
Achievement in directing
- “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.), David Fincher
- “Frost/Nixon” (Universal), Ron Howard
- “Milk” (Focus Features), Gus Van Sant
- “The Reader” (The Weinstein Company), Stephen Daldry
- “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Danny Boyle
Best documentary feature
- “The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)” (Cinema Guild), A Pandinlao Films Production, Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath
- “Encounters at the End of the World” (THINKFilm and Image Entertainment), A Creative Differences Production, Werner Herzog and Henry Kaiser
- “The Garden” A Black Valley Films Production, Scott Hamilton Kennedy
- “Man on Wire” (Magnolia Pictures), A Wall to Wall in association with Red Box Films Production, James Marsh and Simon Chinn
- “Trouble the Water” (Zeitgeist Films), An Elsewhere Films Production, Tia Lessin and Carl Deal
Best documentary short subject
- “The Conscience of Nhem En” A Farallon Films Production, Steven Okazaki
- “The Final Inch” A Vermilion Films Production, Irene Taylor Brodsky and Tom Grant
- “Smile Pinki” A Principe Production, Megan Mylan
- “The Witness – From the Balcony of Room 306” A Rock Paper Scissors Production, Adam Pertofsky and Margaret Hyde
Achievement in film editing
- “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.), Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall
- “The Dark Knight” (Warner Bros.), Lee Smith
- “Frost/Nixon” (Universal), Mike Hill and Dan Hanley
- “Milk” (Focus Features), Elliot Graham
- “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Chris Dickens
Best foreign language film of the year
- “The Baader Meinhof Complex” A Constantin Film Production, Germany
- “The Class” (Sony Pictures Classics), A Haut et Court Production, France
- “Departures” (Regent Releasing), A Departures Film Partners Production, Japan
- “Revanche” (Janus Films), A Prisma Film/Fernseh Production, Austria
- “Waltz with Bashir” (Sony Pictures Classics), A Bridgit Folman Film Gang Production, Israel
Achievement in makeup
- “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.), Greg Cannom
- “The Dark Knight” (Warner Bros.), John Caglione, Jr. and Conor O’Sullivan
- “Hellboy II: The Golden Army” (Universal), Mike Elizalde and Thom Floutz
Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)
- “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.), Alexandre Desplat
- “Defiance” (Paramount Vantage), James Newton Howard
- “Milk” (Focus Features), Danny Elfman
- “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), A.R. Rahman
- “WALL-E” (Walt Disney), Thomas Newman
Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)
- “Down to Earth” from “WALL-E” (Walt Disney), Music by Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman, Lyric by Peter Gabriel
- “Jai Ho” from “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Music by A.R. Rahman, Lyric by Gulzar
- “O Saya” from “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Music and Lyric by A.R. Rahman and Maya Arulpragasam
Best animated short film
- “La Maison en Petits Cubes” A Robot Communications Production, Kunio Kato
- “Lavatory – Lovestory” A Melnitsa Animation Studio and CTB Film Company Production, Konstantin Bronzit
- “Oktapodi” (Talantis Films), A Gobelins, L’école de l’image Production, Emud Mokhberi and Thierry Marchand
- “Presto” (Walt Disney), A Pixar Animation Studios Production, Doug Sweetland
- “This Way Up” A Nexus Production, Alan Smith and Adam Foulkes
Best live action short film
- “Auf der Strecke (On the Line)” (Hamburg Shortfilmagency), An Academy of Media Arts Cologne Production, Reto Caffi
- “Manon on the Asphalt” (La Luna Productions), A La Luna Production, Elizabeth Marre and Olivier Pont
- “New Boy” (Network Ireland Television), A Zanzibar Films Production, Steph Green and Tamara Anghie
- “The Pig” An M & M Production, Tivi Magnusson and Dorte Høgh
- “Spielzeugland (Toyland)” A Mephisto Film Production, Jochen Alexander Freydank
Achievement in sound editing
- “The Dark Knight” (Warner Bros.), Richard King
- “Iron Man” (Paramount and Marvel Entertainment), Frank Eulner and Christopher Boyes
- “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Glenn Freemantle and Tom Sayers
- “WALL-E” (Walt Disney), Ben Burtt and Matthew Wood
- “Wanted” (Universal), Wylie Stateman
Achievement in sound mixing
- “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.), David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce and Mark Weingarten
- “The Dark Knight” (Warner Bros.), Lora Hirschberg, Gary Rizzo and Ed Novick
- “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke and Resul Pookutty
- “WALL-E” (Walt Disney), Tom Myers, Michael Semanick and Ben Burtt
- “Wanted” (Universal), Chris Jenkins, Frank A. Montaño and Petr Forejt
Achievement in visual effects
- “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.), Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton and Craig Barron
- “The Dark Knight” (Warner Bros.), Nick Davis, Chris Corbould, Tim Webber and Paul Franklin
- “Iron Man” (Paramount and Marvel Entertainment), John Nelson, Ben Snow, Dan Sudick and Shane Mahan
PLUS the WINNERS
of the
Screen Actors Guild Awards
January 25, 2009
THEATRICAL MOTION PICTURES
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
SEAN PENN Harvey Milk “MILK” Focus Features
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
MERYL STREEP Sister Aloysius Beauvier “DOUBT” Miramax Films
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role
HEATH LEDGER Joker “THE DARK KNIGHT” Warner Bros. Pictures
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role
KATE WINSLET Hanna Schmitz “THE READER” The Weinstein Company
Outstanding Performance by the Cast of a Motion Picture
“SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE” Fox Searchlight Pictures
RUBINA ALI Youngest Latika
TANAY HEMANT CHHEDA Middle Jamal
ASHUTOSH LOBO GAJIWALA Middle Salim
AZHARUDDIN MOHAMMED ISMAIL Youngest Salim
ANIL KAPOOR Prem
IRRFAN KHAN Police Inspector
AYUSH MAHESH KHEDEKAR Youngest Jamal
TANVI GANESH LONKAR Middle Latika
MADHUR MITTAL Oldest Salim
DEV PATEL Older Jamal
FREIDA PINTO Older Latika
Screen Actors Guild Awards 45th Annual Life Achievement Award
James Earl Jones
Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture
“THE DARK KNIGHT” (Warner Bros. Pictures)
| WADE ALLEN RICK AVERY DEAN BAILEY RICHARD BURDEN FRANK CALZAVARA MARK CHADWICK BRIAN CHRISTENSEN GEORGE COTTLE TOBIASZ DASKIEWICZ JUSTO DIEGUEZ MARIE FINK JEAN-PIERRE GOY MARK HARPER ADAM HART JAMES HEISNER SY HOLLANDS |
TERRY JACKSON PAUL JENNINGS LUKE KEARNEY MATT LeFEVOUR RICK LeFEVOUR TOM LOWELL TONY LUCKEN DANIEL MALDONADO JON MALDONADO JAMES MAMMOSER KEVIN MATHEWS TOM McCOMAS TIM McHENRY NATALIE M. MEYER RICK MILLER MARK MOTTRAM |
CHRIS NOLTE ANDY NORMAN CARL PAOLI LINDA PERLIN BRIAN PETERS SCOTT PHILYAW BUSTER REEVES KEN REMER RICHARD RYAN JEFF SHANNON KEVIN SORENSEN JODI STARNES TOM STRUTHERS TODD ROGERS TERRY JIM WILKEY RICH WILKIE |
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