After the National Board of Review gave Up in the Air a big boost a few weeks ago, the L.A. Film Critics Awards (along with a few other organizations) has done the same for The Hurt Locker: Not only did the war drama take Best Picture — edging out, yes, Up in the Air — but Kathryn Bigelow snagged Best Director as well. (Up in the Air had to make do with a consolation Screenplay win for director Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner.) The Supporting Acting categories stayed predictable, with the recipients being early favorites Mo’Nique and Christoph Waltz, but the lead awards had more drama: Jeff Bridges beat out Colin Firth in the wide-open Best Actor category, and Séraphine’s Yolande Moreau, not much talked about this awards season despite sterling reviews for her film, took down Carey Mulligan in Best Actress for the biggest surprise of the bunch.
PICTURE: “The Hurt Locker”
Runner-up: “Up in the Air”
DIRECTOR: Kathryn Bigelow, “The Hurt Locker”
Runner-up: Michael Haneke, “The White Ribbon”
ACTRESS: Yolande Moreau, “Séraphine”
Runner-up: Carey Mulligan, “An Education”
ACTOR: Jeff Bridges, “Crazy Heart”
Runner-up: Colin Firth, “A Single Man”
ANIMATION: “Fantastic Mr. Fox”
Runner-up: “Up”
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: “Summer Hours”
Runner-up: “The White Ribbon”
NEW GENERATION: Neill Blomkamp, “District 9”
MUSIC/SCORE: T-Bone Burnett and Stephen Bruton, “Crazy Heart”
Runner-up: Alexandre Desplat, “Fantastic Mr. Fox”
PRODUCTION DESIGN: Philip Ivey, “District 9”
Runner-up: Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg, “Avatar”
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Christian Berger, “The White Ribbon”
Runner-up: Barry Ackroyd, “The Hurt Locker”
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Mo’Nique, “Precious”
Runner-up: Anna Kendrick, “Up in the Air”
SUPPORTING ACTOR: Christoph Waltz, “Inglourious Basterds”
Runner-up: Peter Capaldi, “In the Loop”
SCREENPLAY: Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner, “Up in the Air”
Runner-up: Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci and Tony Roche, “In the Loop”
DOCUMENTARY / NON-FICTION FILM: “The Beaches of Agnès” and “The Cove” (tie)
DOUGLAS E. EDWARDS INDEPENDENT/EXPERIMENTAL FILM/VIDEO: Anders Edstrom and C.W. Winter, “The Anchorage”
Los Angeles Film Critics Announce 2009 Award Winners [LAFCA]
