Awards

Just two days after earning 10 Academy Award nominations, "Slumdog Millionaire" on Saturday won the Producers Guild of America's Darryl F. Zanuck Producer of the Year Award. The award went to producer Christian Colson. The film, which revolves around the fortunes of an impoverished Mumbai teenager, has become this movie season's darling, winning multiple Golden Globes and critic's awards. "Slumdog" went into wide release in the U.S.

The American Society of Cinematographers and the NAACP Image Awards both announced their nominations Wednesday for the best of 2008. The ASC awards cover feature film, while the Image Awards nominations span movies, TV, music and literature. For the second consecutive year, Roger Deakins earned double nominations for the ASC's outstanding achievement award. Deakins received nominations for his work on two period films: "Revolutionary Road" and "The Reader."

Could "The Dark Knight," the biggest box-office champ of the decade, become the first superhero movie to win the best picture Oscar? Christopher Nolan's lauded "Batman Begins" sequel got a boost Monday when it was nominated for the Producers Guild of America's top award. Prior to the PGA nomination, "The Dark Knight" had largely been ignored in the best picture category. "The Dark Knight" will compete for the Darryl F.

Movies by Iranian and Peruvian directors will compete for the Berlin film festival's top prize this year alongside new offerings starring Renee Zellweger, Tommy Lee Jones, Michelle Pfeiffer, Judi Dench and others. The Berlin event, the first of the year's major European film festivals, runs Thursday to Feb. 15.

"Slumdog Millionaire," "Iron Man" and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" are among the nominees announced Tuesday for the 11th Annual Costume Designers Guild Awards. Nominees for excellence in the contemporary film category are Laura Jean Shannon and Rebecca Bentjen for "Iron Man," Ann Roth for "Mamma Mia!," Patricia Field for "Sex and the City," Suttirat Larlarb for "Slumdog Millionaire" and Amy Westcott for "The Wrestler."

"The Dark Knight" continues to soar this award season. Christopher Nolan, the director of the critical and commercial success, was nominated Thursday for the 61st annual Directors Guild of America award. It's the first time a director of a superhero movie has received such recognition from the DGA.

Only Hollywood could make a cause of celebrating causes during the season of its self-congratulations -- or as the industry likes to call it, the run-up to the Oscars. This year's award season, with all its spinoff charity events, has been particularly intense. (Blame it on the euphoria over Barack Obama's inauguration.

Oscar front-runner "Slumdog Millionaire" continued its winning ways, receiving guild awards for production design, cinematography and editing over the weekend. The Art Directors Guild honored Mark Digby for excellence in production design of a contemporary film for "Slumdog Millionaire" on Saturday evening at a gala ceremony at the International Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

Six local students were among the first-place winners of the 30th annual College Television Awards, handed out Saturday night by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation. Julie Sagalowsky and Josh C. Feldman of UCLA won in the comedy category for "Lucy: A Period Piece," about a teenager aching for puberty, while Daniel M. Harrich of the American Film Institute in L.A. captured top drama honors for "Acholiland," about a United Nations worker in Uganda.

The city's Police Department is under federal investigation for use of deadly force and its mayor faces charges of conflict of interest and misappropriation of $500,000 in public funds. Still, on Tuesday night, Inglewood found reason to rejoice -- with red, white and blue balloons, kettle corn and a singer dressed in Dorothy's ruby slippers who declared that the city has changed and "it knows where it's going."