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"Waltz With Bashir", an innovative animated documentary about Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982, won the prize on Saturday of the National Society of Film Critics for Best Film of the 2008.


But "Happy-Go-Lucky," Mike Leigh story about a stubborn optimist whose vision of the world is put to the test, won four of the 10 awards presented to the best bands of 2008: Leigh won the award for Best Director and Best Screenplay ; Sally Hawkins was named Best Actress, and Eddie Marsan won recognition for Best Actor.


The critics group named Sean Penn for Best Actor for his performance in the biographical film "Milk" about the pioneering gay politician Harvey Milk.

Hanna Schygulla was the Best Supporting Actress for "The Edge of Heaven," a German-Turkish cross story of loss and forgiveness.


Intense and inventive, "Waltz With Bashir" follows the efforts of the director and a former Israeli soldier, Ari Folman to recover their lost memories of a slaughter during the war. Moves between interviews, dreams, memories and flashbacks, all represented in animation.

This work to beat for Best Film "Happy-Go-Lucky" and the Pixar animated film "WALL-E", which was a box office hit.


Although "Waltz With Bashir" is based on real life, the honor for best non-fictional film was for "Man on Wire" on the path of a tightrope artist Philippe Petit between the twin towers of the World Trade Center 1974.

The award was for Best Picture for "Slumdog Millionaire," a story of poverty to wealth recorded with handheld digital cameras in the slums of Mumbai, India.


"Razzle Dazzle" by Ken Jacobs, which cuts, enlarges and reinvents a 1933 film of Thomas Alva Edison, won the award for Best Experimental Film.

Forty-nine of the 63 society members cast their votes Saturday in a reunion at Sardi's Restaurant in the theater district. The selections of the group often differ from Oscar winners.