Meryl Streep, George Clooney, Mo’Nique, Christoph Waltz: New York Film Critics Awards 2009

Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia

THE HURT LOCKER Tops 2009 New York Film Critics Awards

Although there is still quite a bit of room for surprises, the acting categories have four clear favorites following the New York critics' announcements: George Clooney for Up in the Air (the NY critics added Fantastic Mr. Fox — but not The Men Who Stare at Goats — to their citation), Meryl Streep for Julie & Julia (but not for It's Complicated), Mo'Nique for Precious, and Christoph Waltz for Inglourious Basterds.

All four have won awards elsewhere, e.g., National Board of Review (Clooney), the Washington critics (Clooney, Mo'Nique, Waltz), the Boston critics (Streep, Mo'Nique, Waltz), the New York Film Critics Online (Streep, Mo'Nique, Waltz), the Los Angeles critics (Mo'Nique, Waltz), and even Cannes (Waltz) and Sundance (Mo'Nique).

Makes you wonder if those people watch the same six or seven movies each year.

In fact, overall the New York critics made very predictable — dare we say, commercial — choices. Their offbeat selections were left for less-publicized categories such as foreign language film (Olivier Assayas' family drama Summer Hours), non-fiction film (Terence Davies' bleakly nostalgic Of Time and the City, above), screenplay (Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci and Tony Roche for the political satire In the Loop), and first film (Steve McQueen's political drama Hunger, which earned a number of awards in Britain last year).

A word about Summer Hours: following wins in Boston, Los Angeles, and now New York, it can no longer be considered an "offbeat" choice. If it wins in Boise, it's gonna be an "expected" choice. Summer Hours, I should add, is ineligible for the best foreign language film Academy Award because of the Academy's stupid rule of one film per country. France submitted Jacques Audiard's prison drama A Prophet.

Matching its Los Angeles critics' win, Christian Berger's black-and-white cinematography for Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon was chosen the best of the year. Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox was the best animated feature.

Missing in action from the NY critics' list of winners: An Education (our best picture prediction), A Single Man, Invictus, A Serious Man, Nine, The Lovely Bones, Avatar, Star Trek, District 9, The Blind Side, Everybody's Fine, The Last Station, The Maid, and, gasp, The Twilight Saga: New Moon. Now, Robert Pattinson would have been a truly offbeat pick.

Last year, three of the NY critics’ acting picks received Oscar nominations: best supporting actress Penelope Cruz for Vicky Cristina Barcelona, best supporting actor Josh Brolin for Milk, and best actor Sean Penn for Milk. Both Cruz and Penn won in their respective categories. Happy-Go-Lucky’s Sally Hawkins was the odd-woman-out. (A relative rarity as most NY acting winners have gone on to receive at least an Oscar nomination.)

Hawkins' NY-winning director, Mike Leigh, was just as unhappy and unlucky with the Academy. (He also happened to have been the man behind the equally unlucky Topsy-Turvy.)

The 75th NYFCC awards ceremony will be held on January 14, 2010.