2009 Film Awards

Up until December 10th, my Top 10 list of the best movies released in 2009 was topped by "(500) Days of Summer." And then I saw "Avatar," a film that I'll admit I wasn't really looking forward to seeing. I'm not into 3-D, performance capture, or action films with overwhelming special effects. But "Avatar" made me a believer…

Oscars, Screen Actors Guild, Golden Globes, Critics' Choice and other awards handed out to films and performances from 2009.

This list changed and evolved more than any other of my 'Best of 2009' lists. For a while it was even stuck at a top five list instead of the top 10. But then the year-end films hit and apparently studios had indeed been holding out their big guns until the last month or two of the year.

Dramas aren't drawing audiences (unless they're dramas loaded with action), but comedies continue to do well at the box office. That said, there were a lot of disappointing laffers released in 2009. Thankfully, there were enough decent comedies to make up for the ones that just didn't work.

There were so many outstanding performances by actors in supporting roles in 2009, I could have slipped in half a dozen more names and it wouldn't have felt like I was reaching. As I manipulated the rankings, there was only one actor who never budged from his place in the top 5.

The Broadcast Film Critics Association announced their nominees for the 2009 Critics' Choice Movie Awards and "Nine" and "Inglourious Basterds" earned a record-breaking ten nominations each.

The Alliance of Women Film Journalists have named "The Hurt Locker" as the Best Film of 2009, Carey Mulligan as Best Actress for "An Education," and Jeff Bridges as Best Actor for "Crazy Heart."

The 2009 AFI Awards honoring the Top 10 movies of the year have been revealed and the American Film Institute has chosen "The Hangover," "Up," "Coraline," and "The Hurt Locker" as the top movies of 2009.

It was the 'little film that could' that in fact turned out to be the little film that did. "Slumdog Millionaire" picked up 8 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay.

The Los Angeles Film Critics Association has named "The Hurt Locker" best film of 2009, Yolande Moreau best actress for "Séraphine," and Jeff Bridges best actor for "Crazy Heart."

Photos from the 2009 Oscars featuring Kate Winslet, Penelope Cruz, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Evan Rachel Wood, Mickey Rourke, Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, Taraji Henson, Diane Lane, Josh Brolin, Anne Hathaway, Hugh Jackman, Freida Pinto, Dev Patel, Daniel Craig, Miley Cyrus, Amanda Seyfried, Zac Efron, Jennifer Aniston, Emile Hirsch, Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, and Natalie Portman.

Sex sells or so they say, and apparently the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences executives believe hiring this year's Sexiest Man Alive title winner will perk up the ratings for the Oscars to be held on Sunday, February 22, 2009.

(Oct 2008) In a huge turnaround from their previous stance on the issue, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has decided to allow movie ads to be broadcast during commercial breaks at the 81st Academy Awards.

With the removal of "The Soloist" from the 2008 release calendar, the bumpy road currently being taken by "The Road" (it's all but 100% sure to get an ‘09 release rather than '08), and the lingering question of whether Defiance will wind up in theaters in time to qualify for the Best Picture race, the number of potential contenders for the Academy Award for Best Picture is quickly shrinking.

(Jan 2009) The Oscar race is heating up as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has narrowed the field of potential winners in two categories: Visual Effects and Makeup.

(Nov 2009) After the 108 members of the National Board of Review screened 300 films (including 181 narratives), Jason Reitman's "Up in the Air" was voted by the group as the '2009 Best Film of the Year'. With this win, Reitman's third feature film picks up even more steam as we head further into the awards season.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has invited 134 artists and executives, including 20 actors and 7 directors, to join the Academy. Actors invited to join the Academy in 2009 include Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway, James Franco, and Paul Rudd.

Last year's Golden Globes award ceremony was canceled due to the writers' strike and for a while it looked as though the January 11, 2009 ceremony was in jeopardy. But the Screen Actors Guild put the minds of members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association to ease by announcing they wouldn't go out on strike up until after the Golden Globes.

The 2009 Film Independent's Spirit Awards spread the wealth around a bit. No one movie seemed to be favored as "Ballast," "Frozen River" and "Rachel Getting Married" tied with six nominations each.

Actors honor their own with the annual Screen Actors Guild Awards and this year's event spread the wealth around.

The Broadcast Film Critics Association (of which I'm proud to be a member) is made up of more than 200 television, online, and radio critics, and each year those critics vote on their favorite films and performances.

"Twilight" and "Slumdog Millionaire" each earned 6 nominations for the 2009 MTV Movie Awards to be held May 31, 2009.

The Razzies have been "dis-honoring Hollywood" for 29 years now, pointing out horrible performances, terrible teamings, and lousy work by writers and directors. This year's batch of unlucky nominees was led by Disaster Movie, a spoof pic that set itself up by using the word disaster in its title. But it wound up being the anti-comedy "The Love Guru" that snagged the lion's share of awards.

"Slumdog Millionaire" and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" each had 11 Orange British Academy Film Awards nominations heading into the February 8th event, but it was "Slumdog Millionaire" that ended up the big winner.

Last year's winners of the Writers Guild of America's Best Adapted Screenplay Award, Joel and Ethan Coen ("No Country for Old Men"), earned a nomination this year in the Best Original Screenplay category but didn't wind up repeating as winners. Instead it was relative newcomer Dustin Lance Black who took home his first WGA award, along with two-time WGA nominee Simon Beaufoy.

On Saturday, January 31, 2009 Taylor Hackford and his fellow DGA members honored Danny Boyle with his first DGA Award for his work on "Slumdog Millionaire," the touching dramatic movie that has turned out to be 2008's critical darling.

Producers Guild of America selects five of the best movies of 2008 as well as the best documentary films and animated pictures.

Spike TV's SCREAM 2009 Awards, an annual event honoring the best in the sci-fi, fantasy, horror and comic genres, showered a lot of love on vampires as well as the reboot of the "Star Trek" franchise.