"Pan's Labyrinth's" victory as best picture from the National Society of Film Critics was a dramatic result on the fourth ballot after "Letters from Iwo Jima" and "The Death of Mr. Lazurescu" led during earlier voting rounds.

The 21 critics in attendance at Sardi's restaurant in New York City voted on the best-picture race first because 4 society members had to leave the conclave for a few hours to participate in a New York Times panel, then they returned to rejoin the final rounds. Over all, voting took only about four hours, which is an hour less than usual, but 45 minutes were taken up deciding the contentious best-pic race.

Forty-five of the society's 58 members participated, but the proxy votes of non-present members only count on the first ballot. Categories decided in just one round today were best actress (Helen Mirren, "The Queen"), screenplay ("The Queen") and cinematography ("Children of Men").

"Letters from Iwo Jima" led on the first ballot for best picture, followed by "Army of Shadows" and "The Queen." Then when the proxy votes fell out, "Pan's" led narrowly on the second round, with "Iwo Jima," "The Queen" and "The Death of Mr. Lazurescu" close behind, separated by only a point or two each. On the third ballot, "Lazurescu" pulled ahead with just a one-point margin ahead of "Pan's," which was just slightly ahead of "The Queen." "Pan's" won on the fourth ballot with a score of 34 points when the field of contenders was narrowed only to four choices. Runners-up: "Lazurescu" with 31 points and "Iwo Jima" with 29. Previous to that, all movies could be voted for as members ranked their top 3 choices, giving their lead pick 3 points, second favorite 2 points and third choice 1 point. The winner must have the most points and appear on a plurality of the ballots.

Forest Whitaker ("Last King of Scotland") and Peter O'Toole ("Venus") were so heavily favored in the best-actor race that both of their names appeared on a plurality of ballots after the first canvass, which included scattered support for Ryan Gosling ("Half Nelson"), Sacha Baron Cohen ("Borat"), Leo DiCaprio ("The Departed") and Daniel Craig ("Casino Royale"). No other actors received votes. But since Whitaker and O'Toole tied, voting had to go a second round. At that point, the 21 voters present were restricted to picking either one of them. Whitaker pulled ahead by a single vote.

The supporting actor contest was decided in two rounds. Jackie Earle Haley ("Little Children") led on the first turn, but then fell behind champ Mark Wahlberg during the second round when proxies couldn't pipe in.

Jennifer Hudson ("Dreamgirls") had a slight lead over Meryl Streep ("Devil Wears Prada") on the first ballot for supporting actress, but that ranking flipped when a winner was chosen on the second ballot.

"Deliver Us from Evil" led the first round for best nonfiction (documentary) film, but lost to "An Inconvenient Truth" on the second round.

It only took two ballots to decide winner of best director. There was no category for best foreign film because the society drops the race when a non-English-speaking film wins the top best-pic prize.

Photos — losers that led on the first ballot: "Letters of Iwo Jima" for best pic, Jackie Earle Haley ("Little Children") for supporting actor and Jennifer Hudson ("Dreamgirls") for supporting actress.
(Warner Bros./ New Line/ DreamWorks)