National Society Of Film Critics

An animated Israeli film that's taken on unexpected timeliness in recent days won the top award Saturday from U.S. film critics. "Waltz with Bashir," Ari Folman's animated documentary chronicling his coming to terms with repressed memories of his experiences with the Israeli army in the 1982 Lebanon War, was named best picture of 2008 by the National Society of Film Critics. The film was released in the U.S. only weeks before Israel's military offensive against Hamas in Gaza.