In Contention

By Josh Spiegel

December 25, 2009

They're totally going to win at knifey spooney.

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Well, it's Christmas Day. If you're not already at a movie today, perhaps partaking in the second Alvin and the Chipmunks movie (and since I'm sure you're embarrassed to be doing so, let's just not refer to the movie by its hideously unique subtitle), or checking out George Clooney's third new film in two months, Up in the Air. Of course, you may be celebrating with your family in non-movie-related fashion, but whatever the case is, the Oscar season has not slowed down completely for the holidays. Today, what we've got to discuss are critics, critics, and more critics. Even though many people (myself included) would tell you that newspaper-based film criticism is a rapidly dying art, it's hard to discount the shocking number of critics' groups that have announced awards for 2009.

We're not going to look in-depth at each group, as the amount of awards ranges from Phoenix to Oklahoma to New York City to Los Angeles to St. Louis to Florida. Some of the groups - yes, mostly just the ones who hover around the coasts of the country - will be looked at deeper, but for those of you who are curious about the major points, consider this: if you're involved with The Hurt Locker, Up in the Air, or, on a slightly lower level, Avatar or Inglourious Basterds, be happy. If not, be glad your movie is nominated. The majority of the critics' groups have all awarded The Hurt Locker or Up in the Air as their best films of 2009; the exceptions are the Phoenix Film Critics Society and the San Diego Film Critics Society, which both awarded Inglourious Basterds as the best film of the year; and the Detroit Film Critics Society, which awarded Up as its best film of the year.




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For the major analysis, let's start somewhere that's not hugging the East or West Coast: Chicago. The Chicago Film Critics Association, like many other critics' groups, has awarded The Hurt Locker as its best film of the year. More than most groups, though, Chicago fell in a big way for the Iraq-set war film. The film's director, Kathryn Bigelow; screenwriter, Mark Boal, and lead, Jeremy Renner, all won here. Among critics' groups, it's Boal's first win, while Renner picks up another honor, though he's fighting against the stampede known as George Clooney. Bigelow is just about the most solid frontrunner in her category, if we are to seriously consider critics' groups as being a consistent parallel to Oscar nods. Bigelow has won a heavy majority of awards from critics across the country, and has a very good chance of being the first female director to win the Best Director Oscar.

But the Chicago film critics have sometimes gone further toward eclectic choices in years past. Though their picks for the best film of the year matched up with Oscar in four of the past six years, some of the choices are a bit more unique. Last year, they chose WALL-E as the best film of the year; other winners that didn't match up are Sideways, Far From Heaven, and Mulholland Dr. The Oscars have not always matched up in this group's sometimes out-there tastes, so some of their winners this year may not match up. I would imagine that, among the big winners, Boal and Renner will likely be nominated but not win at the upcoming Academy Awards ceremony. Bigelow has the most complete shot of getting Oscar gold, despite her uniquely uphill battle, as she would be only the fourth female Best Director Oscar nominee.


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