The Austin Film Critics Association has chosen the Iraq War drama The Hurt Locker (above, with Jeremy Renner) as the best film of 2009. Kathryn Bigelow was chosen best director.
Most other Austin picks were just as predictable, though they didn't exactly match the choices of the majority of critics groups thus far, e.g., Anna Kendrick as best supporting actress for Up in the Air (same as the National Board of Review), Colin Firth as best actor for A Single Man (also in San Francisco), and Cary Fukunaga's Sin Nombre as best foreign film.
The one major surprise was the choice of Mélanie Laurent (above) as best actress for Inglourious Basterds, in which she plays a French Jew running a movie theater in Nazi-occupied Paris. Quentin Tarantino's violent World War II fantasy was also the top choice for best original screenplay (Tarantino) and best supporting actor, critics' fave Christoph Waltz.
Additionally, the Austin critics released their list of top ten films of the decade, nearly all of which are big-budget Hollywood productions. See below.
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
- There Will Be Blood (2007)
- The Lord of the Rings (2001-2003)
- The Dark Knight (2008)
- Requiem for a Dream (2000)
- Kill Bill (2003/4)
- No Country for Old Men (2007)
- The Incredibles (2004)
- Children of Men (2006)
- (tie) Memento (2000), The Departed (2006)