Congratulations to director Kathryn Bigelow.
Her Iraq War film, “The Hurt Locker” starring Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty (with appearances by David Morse, Evangeline Lilly, Guy Pearce, and Ralph Fiennes) is basically now a shoo-in for an Oscar nomination.
Sure, we already figured this, but the deal has been sealed. How’s that? Well, both the New York Film Critics Circle Awards and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association have named the film their Best Picture in their respective awards released today and this weekend. Both groups awarded Bigelow with the Best Director prize which is fantastic news and means she’ll also likely get an very-deserving Best Director nomination for Oscar if all goes well. In fact, this nom does both super well for her. As Cinematical points out, the only times that NY & LA critics agreed on their choice for director since 1999 was Steven Soderbergh in 2000 (“Traffic”) and Ang Lee in 2005 (“Brokeback Mountain”) and both of them went on to victory at the Oscars. It would be very respectable to see Kathryn Bigelow as 2009’s Best Director.
The groups aren’t always in synch so this is a huge coup for Summit and “The Hurt Locker.” Last year, the NY crits went for “Milk” and the LA scribes went for “Wall-E.” The previous year, LA went for “There Will Be Blood” and NY went for “No Country For Old Men.”
Reading these tea leaves for Oscar is always interesting. Both groups did not nominate “Up” for Best Animated picture as most would expect, but instead, Wes Anderson’s “Fantastic Mr. Fox” was the unanimous winner (whether that can happen at Oscar seems doubtful). Both groups also agreed on Mo’Nique’s “Precious” turn for Best Supporting Actress and Christoph Waltz’s Supporting Actor performance for “Inglourious Basterds” (both were already Oscar-shoo-ins and are now airtight locks with a good eye towards winning).
Here’s the NY Winners:
Best Film – THE HURT LOCKER
Best Director – KATHRYN BIGELOW for “The Hurt Locker”
Best Screenplay – IN THE LOOP
Best Actress – MERYL STREEP for “Julie & Julia”
Best Actor – GEORGE CLOONEY for “Up In The Air” and “Fantastic Mr. Fox”
Best Supporting Actress – MO’NIQUE for “Precious”
Best Supporting Actor – CHRISTOPH WALTZ for “Inglourious Basterds
Best Cinematography – CHRISTIAN BERGER for “The White Ribbon”
Best Animated Film – FANTASTIC MR. FOX
Best Non-fiction Film – OF TIME AND THE CITY
Best Foreign Language Film – SUMMER HOURS
Best First Feature – HUNGER, director Steve McQueen
Here’s the LA Winners:
Best Picture: THE HURT LOCKER
Best Actor: JEFF BRIDGES (“CRAZY HEART”)
Best Actress: YOLANDE MOREAU (“SERAPHINE”)
New Generation Award: NEIL BLOMKAMP (“DISTRICT 9”
Best Supporting Actor: CHRISTOPH WALTZ (“INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS”)
Best Supporting Actress: MO’NIQUE, (“PRECIOUS”)
Best Director: KATHRYN BIGELOW (“THE HURT LOCKER”)
Best Screenplay: JASON REITMAN & SHELDON TURNER (“UP IN THE AIR”)
Best Cinematography: CHRISTIAN BERGER (“THE WHITE RIBBON”)=
Best Documentary/Non-fiction Film: “THE BEACHES OF AGNES” & “THE COVE”
Best Foreign-Language Film: “SUMMER HOURS”
Best Animated Film: “FANTASTIC MR. FOX”
Best Music/Score: T-BONE BURNETT AND STEPHEN BRUTON, “CRAZY HEART”
Best Production Design: PHILIP IVEY, “DISTRICT 9”
Douglas E. Edwards Independent/Experimental Film/Video Award: C.W. WINTER AND ANDERS EDSTROM, “THE ANCHORAGE”
Was there ever any doubt?
The only films I think that won't get in that should are A Serious Man & Public Enemies.
@Fitz. Prolly not, it was in our picks made over the weekend and from the beginning, but you can never be too sure with the Academy. A Serious Man, completely needs to be there and it might not which is totally fucked up.
Yawn.
Another slate of films that will mostly be forgotten two years from now.
Gee, very curious to hear the films you care about anon. Terminator Salvation and Watchmen?
I'm hearing a lot of positive word on the Fantastic Mr. Fox, possible upset in the best animation category by chance this year?
UP totally deflated (sorry!) during the second half, once he reached the waterfall and met his childhood hero, it became a silly good guy / bad guy adventure and it lost a lot of its heart. It should have been about honoring his dead wife's wishes and achieving his dreams. It was the same with Wall-E, once wall-e went into space it was all wacky and again good guy / bad guy.
Pixar seem to think everything they do lately has to follow a format and have a villain.
Still, it deserves best animated feature, Fox was good, but not great.
I agree with your mom about Up. I hope it doesn't make the Best 10 Pictures and frees up room for something else, preferably Bright Star.
"Gee, very curious to hear the films you care about anon. Terminator Salvation and Watchmen?"
lol, Senor Playlist. You're so far off, you're not even on the map. Last three films I've watched: Little Fugitive (Morris Engel), Yeelen (Souleymane Cisse), Dog Star Man Part IV (Brakhage…my 4th or 5th viewing).
So yeah, how's that condescending straw man diss going for you? Anyway, this was a comment on the milquetoast echo-chamber that is the American mainstream critical establishment…not you.
Seriously, go and look at Oscar and critics' lists from years past…it's embarrassing that knowledgeable film people actually cared about those films.
Atonement? A Beautiful Mind? Juno? Million Dollar Baby? Is that your idea of great cinematic art?
@Fitz
I'm a little disappointed too that Public Enemies has been forgotten. I'm also disappointed the 'Public Enemies' dvd cover is really plain with the same old pic of Depp as Dillinger.
But I guess some say the movie was a bit plain.
I'd rather see 'Enemies' over Up, Inglorious Basterds, Avatar, Star Trek, etc.