Brian Geraghty, Guy Pearce in The Hurt Locker
Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker was the New York Film Critics Circle's unsurprising choice for best picture of 2009. Yesterday, the Iraq War drama about a US bomb squad unit won top honors in Boston and Los Angeles as well.
Now, is it a front runner for the Oscars? Not necessarily — unless it wins the Screen Actors Guild's best ensemble award early next year. For now, both Up in the Air and Precious remain serious contenders. And by February, Avatar may have become a favorite as well.
It's curious to remember that a year ago The Hurt Locker didn't even get a Spirit Award nomination for best picture. Back then, long before The Hurt Locker became a trendy fave, the film was shortlisted in only two categories: best actor (Jeremy Renner) and best supporting actor (Anthony Mackie). A year from now, if it gets nominated overseas, The Hurt Locker will probably be greeted with considerably less enthusiasm as well — as was the case with the 2008 sensation Slumdog Millionaire at the 2009 European Film Awards held this past weekend.
In the last twenty years, fourteen NY critics best picture winners went on to receive best picture Oscar nominations. Three of those won the Oscar. Four of the NY winners that failed to land a best picture nomination did at least get a best director Oscar nod. (Far from Heaven in 2002 and Topsy-Turvy in 1999 were the two left out, though both garnered Oscar recognition in other categories.)
The 75th NYFCC awards ceremony will be held on January 14, 2010.
And in case you're wondering who the first winners were back in 1935, here they are:
- Best Picture: The Informer
- Best Actor: Charles Laughton for Mutiny on the Bounty and Ruggles of Red Gap
- Best Actress: Greta Garbo for Anna Karenina
- Best Director: John Ford for The Informer