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”