New York Film Critics Circle picks Hurt Locker as 2009's top film

Mission accomplished

Yet another major critic organization selected Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker -- Metacritic's highest-scoring movie of 2009, at 94 -- as the best film of the year on Monday. The New York Film Critics Circle -- perhaps the most prominent of all film critic groups -- agreed with their colleagues in Los Angeles, who named Hurt Locker as best picture on Sunday.

The New York critics, like the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, picked Bigelow as the year's top director, with Meryl Streep and George Clooney receiving acting honors.The NYFCC has agreed with the Academy's Best Picture winner only twice in the past decade: in 2007, for No Country for Old Men, and in 2003, for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

Today's other honorees

Broadcast Film Critics

The Broadcast Film Critics Association announced their 2009 nominees for the Critics Choice Awards today, and their selections for top film included:

• Avatar
• An Education
• The Hurt Locker
• Inglourious Basterds
• Invictus
• Nine
• Precious
• A Serious Man
• Up
• Up in the Air

The winners will be named on January 15, 2010. The largest of all critic organizations, the BFCA consists mainly of local television and radio personalities, but also includes some online critics. Last year, all five eventual Academy Award best picture nominees were included in the BFCA's list of nominated films, and both groups selected Slumdog Millionaire as the top film. In fact, the Academy and the BFCA have selected the same top film for three straight years.

Southeastern Film Critics Association

The Southeastern Film Critics Association became the second organization -- after the National Board of Review -- to honor Up in the Air as the year's best film. The George Clooney vehicle edged out The Hurt Locker and Disney/Pixar's Up for top honors, while Clooney and Streep were named the year's top actors. Last year, the SFCA selected Milk as top film, but the group agreed with the Academy's top picks in 2006 and 2007.

But wait, there's more

Tuesday morning will see the announcement of the Golden Globe nominations. To date (including the awards above), The Hurt Locker leads all honorees with three Best Picture awards, followed by Up in the Air with two.