For the first time in its history, the Los Angeles Critics Assn. honored an animated film as the year's best picture when it chose Pixar's "WALL-E" in its annual voting Tuesday. Curiously, to spread the wealth, the group honored the Israeli "Waltz With Bashir" as its best animated film.

The group did a similar thing in 2000 when it honored the Chinese-language "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" as best picture while it selected the Taiwanese film "A One and a Two" as best foreign-language film.

The runner-up for best picture was Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight."

Otherwise, the awards were pretty much all over the place. The group selected Danny Boyle as best director for his Mumbai melody of drama, comedy and emotions, "Slumdog Millionaire." Runner-up was David Fincher for "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button."