Heath Ledger has posthu­mously won the award of Best Actor in a Sup­port­ing Role for his por­trayal of The Joker. Chris Nolan accepted the award on behalf of Heath Ledger:

Full Win­ners List

Best Sup­port­ing Actress: Kate Winslet, “The Reader“
Best Orig­i­nal Song: Bruce Spring­steen, “The Wrestler“
Best Sup­port­ing Actor in a Series, Minis­eries or Movie: Tom Wilkin­son, “John Adams“
Best Sup­port­ing Actress in a Series, Minis­eries or Movie: Laura Dern, “Recount“
Best Per­for­mance by an Actor in a Tele­vi­sion Series, Drama: Gabriel Byrne, “In Treat­ment“
Best Actress in a TV Series, Drama: Anna Paquin, “True Blood“
Out­stand­ing Ani­mated Fea­ture: “WALL-E“
Best Per­for­mance by an Actress in a Motion Pic­ture — Musi­cal or Com­edy: Sally Hawkins, “Happy-Go-Lucky“
Best Mini-Series or Motion Pic­ture Made for Tele­vi­sion: “John Adams“
Best Sup­port­ing Actor in a Motion Pic­ture: Heath Ledger, “The Dark Knight“
Best For­eign Lan­guage Film: “Waltz With Bashir“
Best Per­for­mance by an Actress in a Mini-Series or Motion Pic­ture Made for Tele­vi­sion: Laura Lin­ney, “John Adams“
Best Screen­play: Simon Beau­foy, “Slum­dog Mil­lion­aire“
Best Per­for­mance by an Actor in a Tele­vi­sion Series — Musi­cal or Com­edy: Alec Bald­win, “30 Rock“
Best Per­for­mance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Pic­ture Made for Tele­vi­sion: Paul Gia­matti, “John Adams“
Best Tele­vi­sion Series — Musi­cal or Com­edy: “30 Rock“
Best Orig­i­nal Score, A.R. Rah­man: “Slum­dog Mil­lion­aire“
Best Per­for­mance by an Actress in a Tele­vi­sion Series — Musi­cal or Com­edy: Tina Fey, “30 Rock“
Cecil B. DeMille Award: Steven Spiel­berg
Best Direc­tor — Motion Pic­ture: Danny Boyle “Slum­dog Mil­lion­aire“
Best Per­for­mance by an Actor in a Motion Pic­ture — Musi­cal or Com­edy: Colin Far­rell, “In Bruges“
Best Motion Pic­ture — Musi­cal or Com­edy: “Vicky Cristina Barcelona“
Best Per­for­mance by an Actress in a Motion Pic­ture –Drama: Kate Winslet, “Rev­o­lu­tion­ary Road“
Best Tele­vi­sion Series — Drama: “Mad Men“
Best Actor in a Motion Pic­ture — Drama: Mickey Rourke, “The Wrestler“
Best Motion Pic­ture — Drama: “Slum­dog Millionaire”

From MTV:

“I think Har­vey — if he’s not dead — is in a seri­ous coma,” stated Eck­hart, “and I’m not sure he’s com­ing out. They might pull the plug on him.” Seem­ingly firm words, right? Except even the notion that his alter-ego is still alive is a clear depar­ture from pre­vi­ous state­ments where the actor was per­fectly fine con­firm­ing Harvey’s death at the busi­ness end of a freefalling drop.

We know from our recent inter­view with pro­ducer Charles Roven that screen­writ­ers Christo­pher Nolan and David Goyer have begun brain­storm­ing ideas for a third “Bat­man” film…could some­thing out of that have led to Eckhart’s about-face on Two-Face? His wink-wink-nod-nod answer seems to sug­gest that some­thing else may be at play.

Are MTV clutch­ing at straws here?

The Writ­ers Guild, Pro­duc­ers Guild and Direc­tors Guild have all nom­i­nated The Dark Knight in their respec­tive awards:

Director’s Guild — Best Picture:

David Fincher, “The Curi­ous Case of Ben­jamin But­ton”
Christo­pher Nolan, “The Dark Knight”
Ron Howard, “Frost/Nixon”
Gus Van Sant, “Milk”
Danny Boyle, “Slum­dog Millionaire”

Writ­ers Guild — Best Adapted Screenplay:

The Curi­ous Case of Ben­jamin But­ton, Screen­play by Eric Roth; Screen Story by Eric Roth and Robin Swicord; Based on the Short Story by F. Scott Fitzger­ald, Para­mount Pic­tures and Warner Bros. Pictures

The Dark Knight, Screen­play by Jonathan Nolan and Christo­pher Nolan; Story by Christo­pher Nolan & David S. Goyer; Based on Char­ac­ters Appear­ing in Comic Books Pub­lished by DC Comics; Bat­man Cre­ated by Bob Kane, Warner Bros. Pictures

Doubt, Screen­play by John Patrick Shan­ley, Based on his Stage Play, Mira­max Films

Frost/Nixon, Screen­play by Peter Mor­gan, Based on his Stage Play, Uni­ver­sal Pictures

Slum­dog Mil­lion­aire, Screen­play by Simon Beau­foy, Based on the Novel Q and A by Vikas Swarup, Fox Search­light Pictures

Producer’s Guild — Dar­ryl F. Zanuck Pro­ducer of the Year Award:

Slum­dog Mil­lion­aire
The Curi­ous Case of Ben­jamin But­ton
Milk
Frost/Nixon
The Dark Knight

In other news, MTV recently spoke to Dark Knight pro­ducer Chuck Roven about Chris Nolan’s Bat­man 3, but there’s noth­ing new to be heard on that for now — Nolan and writer Goyer are talk­ing, that’s the full extent of the article.

Visual Effects shortlist:

Aus­tralia
The Curi­ous Case of Ben­jamin But­ton
The Dark Knight
Hell­boy II: The Golden Army
Iron Man
Jour­ney to the Cen­ter of the Earth
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

These will be nar­rowed down on the 15th of Jan­u­ary after mem­bers of the Academy’s visual effects branch have viewed 15 minute clips of these movies, pre­sum­ably show­cas­ing their effects. The mem­bers shall then vote, and then there will be three.

Makeup shorltist:

The Curi­ous Case of Ben­jamin But­ton
The Dark Knight
Hell­boy II: The Golden Army
The Reader
Synec­doche, New York
Tropic Thun­der
The Wrestler

There is only a ten minute clip for these movies, they will be voted on on 17th Jan­u­ary, to pro­duce the final list of 3.

The 81st Acad­emy Awards are on EDIT: Feb­ru­ary 22nd.

Via SHH:

The Pro­duc­ers Guild of Amer­ica has just nom­i­nated the movie for its annual Pro­duc­ers Guild Awards tak­ing place Sat­ur­day, Jan­u­ary 24 at the Hol­ly­wood Pal­la­dium. The Dark Knight is going up against The Curi­ous Case of Ben­jamin But­ton, Frost/Nixon, Milk and Slum­dog Mil­lion­aire for Best Picture.

Things are look­ing on course for an Oscar nom­i­na­tion come Jan­u­ary 22nd!

The nom­i­na­tions for the 15th Annual Screen Actors Guild have been announced, with Heath Ledger in the run­ning for best male actor in a sup­port­ing role. The cer­e­mony will take place on Sun­day, Jan 25th, with a simul­cast Live on TNT and TBS at 8 PM ET/PT.

Out­stand­ing Per­for­mance by a Male Actor in a Sup­port­ing Role
JOSH BROLIN / Dan White — “MILK” (Focus Fea­tures)
ROBERT DOWNEY, JR. / Kirk Lazarus — “TROPIC THUNDER” (Para­mount Pic­tures)
PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN / Father Bren­dan Flynn — “DOUBT” (Mira­max Films)
HEATH LEDGER / Joker — “THE DARK KNIGHT” (Warner Bros. Pic­tures)
DEV PATEL / Older Jamal — “SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE” (Fox Search­light Pictures)

Out­stand­ing Per­for­mance by a Stunt Ensem­ble in a Motion Pic­ture
THE DARK KNIGHT (Warner Bros. Pic­tures)
HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY (Uni­ver­sal Pic­tures)
INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL (Para­mount Pic­tures)
IRON MAN (Para­mount Pic­tures)
WANTED (Uni­ver­sal Pic­tures)

The Amer­i­can Film Insti­tute has listed its top movies of 2008, and The Dark Knight is listed in it along with some pres­ti­gious company:

The Curi­ous Case of Ben­jamin But­ton
The Dark Knight
Frost/Nixon
Frozen River
Gran Torino
Iron Man
Milk
WALL-E
Wendy and Lucy
The Wrestler

Can’t say we didn’t see this one com­ing. Nikki Finke has the scoop on the sales numbers,

I just heard that Warner Bros’ Bat­man Blu-ray discs alone sold 600,000 copies on Tues­day, the first day of release. By con­trast, Marvel/Paramount’s Iron Man sold 250,000 Blu-ray discs when it pre­miered on Sep­tem­ber 30th and ended up sell­ing 400,000 Blu-ray units in its first week. But wait til you see what The Dark Knight sold in both for­mats, stan­dard def and hi-def: 3 mil­lion copies bought by cus­tomers in the U.S., Canada and the UK on its first day in stores. That’s 3x the norm.

Reuters have the lat­est update on the DVD and Blu-ray sales, stat­ing that more than 10 mil­lion units have been shifted:

Sales of the DVD, star­ring Chris­t­ian Bale as Bat­man and the late Heath Ledger as the vil­lain­ous Joker, totaled more than 10 mil­lion units world­wide since its Decem­ber 9 release and are expected to remain strong through­out the hol­i­day sea­son, Time Warner Inc’s Warner Bros movie stu­dio said. Ten mil­lion units trans­late into an esti­mated $175 mil­lion in rev­enues, accord­ing to Home Media Mag­a­zine Mar­ket Research.

The best sell­ing DVD of all time is “Find­ing Nemo” with over 60m units sold.