The 2008 Gopos awards in Romania were handed out in 17 categories, with ten of them won by Cannes Palme d'Or winner 4 luni, 3 saptamini si 2 zile from Cristian Mungiu, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress for Anamaria Marinca, Best Supporting Actress for Laura Vasiliu, Best Supporting Actor for Vlad Ivanov and Best Cinematography for Oleg Mutu, who also co-produced the film with the director. The austere and at times thriller-like drama follows a young woman (Marina) whose best friend (Vasiliu) tries to have an abortion arranged in communist-era Romania. Ivanov plays Mr Bébé, the doctor who will illegally help them out but whose price is extremely high.

The winner of Cannes' Un Certain Regard section, California Dreamin' (Nesfarsit), the directorial debut of director Cristian Nemescu, who died in a car accident before his film was finished, went home with a total of five Gopos. Besides three "big" Gopos -- Best Actor for Razvan Vasilescu, Best Screenplay for Cristian Nemescu and Tudor Voican and Best Editing  (despite being unfinished) -- the film also won for Best Costume Design and in the category Most Promising Talent, which went to screenwriter Tudor Voican. The film is a pitch black comedy inspired by real events during the Kosovo war, when a Nato train with US soldiers aboard was held up for days at a Romanian train station in the middle of nowhere because their paperwork was not in order. Vasilescu plays the unforgiving station master in the film.

The Best Documentary Gopo went to Alexandru Solomon's Cold Waves, about Radio Free Europe Romania and its trouble with the Securitate.

In the Czech Republic, the Czech Lions were more evenly distributed among various films, with Tajnosti winning Best Picture and Best Cinematography and La môme (simply called Edith Piaf in Czech) winning Best Actress for Marion Cotillard and Best Music and Best Sound. The Best Actor Czech Lion went to Ivan Trojan for his role as the title character in Jirí Vejdelek's Václav, a drama based on a true story about a mentally challenged man (Trojan) who ends up in jail after a criminal act in the early 1990s and whose mother has to convince the entire village to sign a petition for a presidential pardon. The film also won in the Best Supporting Actor category for actor Jan Budar, who plays Václav's brother in the film. 

The Best Director Czech Lion went to Jan Sverák for his gentle crowd-pleaser Vratné Lahve (Empties), which also won the Audience Award and the Best Screenplay Czech Lion. It was a good year for Sverák, who also produced Best Picture-winner Tajnosti. As in the director's Oscar-winning Kolja (Kolya), the film stars the his father Zdenek Sverák in the lead role. In Vratné Lahve Sverák senior plays as a gentle old man who works at the empty-bottle counter of the local supermarket until on one day he is replaced by a machine. 

Zuzana Bydzovska won the Best Supporting Actress statue for her role as the single mother of the graffiti-spraying teen protagonist in Gympl (The Can) from director Tomás Vorel. The Best Editing Czech Lion went to ...a bude hur (It's Gonna Get Worse) an episodic look at the life of a couple of hippies in Soviet-era Czechoslovakia from director Petr Nikolaev.