The votes are in, and it looks like The Hurt Locker‘s Kathryn “K-Bigs” Bigelow is walking away with Best Director and maybe Best Picture, though Quentin Tarantino’s giving her a run for her money with his beautiful Basterds. Here are the winners as far as SPJ is concerned.
Scott
Best Picture: Inglourious Basterds – a bold and brilliant film filled with humor, excitement and an unparalleled love of movies
Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker - the success of the first great film about Iraq is almost entirely due to Bigelow’s tense action direction
Best Actor: Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart - the Dude is due; one of his greatest performances, unfortunately in a so-so film
Best Actress: Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia - turns what could’ve been a caricature into a touching portrait of happy marriage and joie de vivre
Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
Best Supporting Actress: Mo’Nique, Precious
Best Screenplay, Original: Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds - Quentin’s most mature and inventive writing yet
Best Screenplay, Adapted: Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci and Tony Roche, In The Loop - hilarious, rapid fire, and deeply sad
Best Animated Feature: Coraline - unexpectedly the toughest category for me this year as I loved all of the nominees, but the ambitious and creepy Coraline takes the gold
Best Cinematography: Christian Berger, The White Ribbon - the incredible cinematographer behind all of Michael Haneke’s good movies deserves it
Best Foreign Language Film: The White Ribbon
Best Musical Score: Michael Giacchino, Up - one of the best composers working today turns in his most memorable work to date
Ellen
Best Picture: The Hurt Locker - This isn’t my favorite nominee, but here’s why I’m pulling for it: It represents great filmmaking, intense character work and an appropriate timeliness — everything I think the Best Picture category should honor (even if it normally doesn’t.)
Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker - K-Bigs!
Best Actor: Colin Firth, A Single Man
Best Actress: Carey Mulligan, An Education
Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds - BAD and ASS
Best Supporting Actress: Anna Kendrick, Up In The Air
Best Screenplay, Original: Joel and Ethan Coen, A Serious Man
Best Screenplay, Adapted: Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci and Tony Roche, In The Loop
Best Animated Feature: Fantastic Mr. Fox
Best Foreign Language Film: The White Ribbon
Best Score: Hans Zimmer, Sherlock Holmes
Dennis
Best Picture: The Hurt Locker – Avatar sure was pretty to look at and with ten nominees really really shiny, computerized blue thingies probably deserve a nomination. But a win? Did you hear the same dialogue I did? I wouldn’t mind an Inglourious upset either. Everything else? Meh.
Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
Best Actor: Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker
Best Actress: Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia
Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
Best Supporting Actress: Mo’Nique, Precious
Best Screenplay, Original: 500 Days of Summer - What? That’s still not nominated? (Sorry couldn’t resist)… Inglourious Basterds
Best Screenplay, Adapted: Precious
Best Animated Feature: Up
Robert
Best Picture: Inglourious Basterds – I don’t get to go to many movies throughout the year, but when I sat down in that dark theater and the first scene opened with “Once upon a time…in Nazi occupied France” I knew I was in for something special. It’s been a good while since Tarantino brought us this level of confident, spellbinding dialogue backed by such strong, calculated performances. For me, it’s a rare thing to think “I’m watching a master at work right now” but that’s the feeling I had all throughout Inglourious Basterds.
Best Director: Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds
Best Actor: Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
Best Screenplay, Original: Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds
Best Animated Feature: Up
Best Documentary: Food, Inc.
Best Cinematography: Robert Richardson, Inglourious Basterds
Best Visual Effects: Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R. Jones, Avatar
Best Musical Score: Michael Giacchino, Up
Best Sound Editing: Christopher Boyes and Gwendolyn Yates Whittle, Avatar
Best Sound Mixing: Paul N.J. Ottosson and Ray Beckett, The Hurt Locker
Who gets your vote, dear readers?