George Clooney, Vera Farmiga in Up in the Air (top); Alfred Molina, Cara Seymour, Carey Mulligan, Peter Sarsgaard in An Education (middle); Anthony Mackie, Jeremy Renner in The Hurt Locker (bottom)
Carey Mulligan, playing a 1960s London teenager eager to lose her virginity with the help of a man more than twice her age (Peter Sarsgaard) in An Education, won her third award today: she was voted best actress by the Washington D.C. Film Critics. Earlier this evening, Mulligan had won a British Independent Film Award and a couple of days ago she was honored by the National Board of Review. Meryl Streep had better watch out.
Jason Reitman's Up in the Air, about a tin-hearted downsizing expert who rediscovers his humanity, was voted best film of 2009 while star George Clooney was the best actor. Both had already won in their respective categories at the National Board of Review awards as well, with Clooney tying with Morgan Freeman for Invictus.
Kathryn Bigelow, however, was voted best director for The Hurt Locker, which recently won best picture and best ensemble honors at the Gotham Awards. The Washington critics concurred with the latter choice, picking the Iraq War drama about an American bomb squad unit for their ensemble prize. The Hurt Locker features, among others, Jeremy Renner, Ralph Fiennes, Brian Geraghty, Guy Pearce, and Anthony Mackie.
Other Washington Critics' winners were best supporting actress Mo'Nique (above) for her abusive mom in Precious; best supporting actor Christoph Waltz for his nasty Nazi in Inglourious Basterds; Pete Docter's Up for best animated film; Robert Kenner's Food, Inc. for best documentary; and Gabourey Sidibe for breakthrough performer for her role as the abused, illiterate, pregnant teen in Precious. (Best actress winner Carey Mulligan was also nominated in the breakthrough performer category; the Washington critics clearly wanted to spread their love around.)
Writer-director Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds also won the best original screenplay award.
All but one of the Washington critics' picks were expected — or at least not unexpected. The one big surprise was the best foreign film winner, Cary Fukunaga's feature-film debut Sin Nombre, a Mexico-US production about Mexican gangs and would-be immigrants that was shot in Spanish. The film's star, Édgar Flores (above), won the Stockholm Film Festival's best actor award a couple of weeks ago.
Curiously, the Washington critics give out an award for best art direction — this year's winner was Nine — but not for, say, cinematography or film editing, which tend to be more common categories among critics' groups.
It's time for the critics to remember that there were other great performances this year besides those of George Clooney (I haven't watched his movie yet) and Carey Mulligan.