George Clooney in Up in the Air (Dale Robinette / Paramount)
The Indiana Film Journalists Association — I hadn't heard of this group before — have also announced their list of winners. (Four of the Association's nine members can be found at The Film Yap. I hadn't heard about them because this is their first year giving out awards.)
Will it influence the Oscars? Not really, but it's interesting to see that Hoosier critics have gone their own way by choosing Jason Reitman's Up in the Air as the best picture of the year, Louie Psihoyos' The Cove as best documentary, George Clooney as best actor for Up in the Air, Carey Mulligan as best actress for An Education. Most shocking of all was the choice of Mo'Nique as best supporting actress for Precious and Christoph Waltz as best supporting actor for Inglourious Basterds. No, scratch all that.
All joking aside, the Indiana Film Journalists have made one curious choice (and that's better than nothing): Spike Jonze as best director for Where the Wild Things Are, which also won the IFJA's Original Vision Award. True, this big-budget fantasy film is hardly what you'd call "unusual" in terms of popularity, but it's certainly something new when it comes to year-end critics' choices that have tended to honor the same five people and the same five films over and over again. Just like in years past.
By the way, I discovered the Hoosier critics by way of Ryan Adams at Awards Daily.