Archive for January 3rd, 2010

Jeremy Renner in "The Hurt Locker"

The National Society of Film Critics has announced that the Kathryn Bigelow directed Hurt Locker has won their awards for this year’s Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor (Jeremy Renner).  The film is the first one since 1997’s L.A. Confidential to win Best Picture honors from the top three – the National Society, and the L.A. and New York Critic Societies.

The other NSFC award winners include the following:

Actress: Yolande Moreau, Seraphine

Supporting Actor: (tie) Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds, and Paul Schneider, Bright Star

Supporting Actress: Mo’Nique, Precious

Screenplay: Joel and Ethan Coen, A Serious Man

Foreign-Language Film: Summer Hours

Nonfiction Film: The Beaches of Agnes

Cinematography: Christian Berger, The White Ribbon

Production design: Nelson Lowry, Fantastic Mr. Fox

Source: Variety

Quick Opinion: While even we here at Movie-Thoughts thought very highly of Hurt Locker, it would be a surprise to us if it went on to win Best Picture at the upcoming Academy Awards. The film will doubtless be nominated, as the nomination pool has grown to 10 this year, but with contenders like Avatar, Inglourious Basterds, and Precious to compete with the Best Picture Oscar is hardly in the bag. However, such high praise at this time of year has proven to give a number of films the momentum needed to pull off the feat (American Beauty, Crash, and Slumdog Millionaire come to mind). So if you are someone pulling for Hurt Locker to win it all, you may not need to cross your fingers.