Top 10 Films

• (500) Days of Summer
• An Education
  An Education
  An Education is a 2009 British coming-of-age drama film, based on an autobiographical article in Granta by British journalist Lynn Barber. The film was directed by Lone Scherfig from a screenplay by Nick Hornby, and stars Carey Mulligan as Jenny, a bright schoolgirl, and Peter Sarsgaard as David,...
  
  
• The Hurt Locker
  The Hurt Locker
  The Hurt Locker is a 2009 American war film about a three-man United States Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal team during the Iraq War. The film was directed by Kathryn Bigelow and the screenplay was written by Mark Boal, a freelance writer who was embedded as a journalist in 2004 with a US bomb...
  
   (Academy Award for Best Picture)
• Inglourious Basterds
• Invictus
  Invictus (film)
  Invictus is a 2009 biographical sports drama film directed by Clint Eastwood starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon.The story is based on the John Carlin book Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Changed a Nation about the events in South Africa before and during the 1995 Rugby World...
  
  
• The Messenger
  The Messenger (2009 film)
  The Messenger is a 2009 war drama film starring Ben Foster, Woody Harrelson, Steve Buscemi, Jena Malone, and Samantha Morton. It is the directorial debut of Oren Moverman, who also wrote the screenplay with Alessandro Camon....
  
  
• A Serious Man
  A Serious Man
  A Serious Man is a 2009 dark comedy written, produced, and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. The film stars Michael Stuhlbarg as a Minnesota Jewish man whose life crumbles both professionally and personally, leading to questions about his faith...
  
  
• Star Trek
• Up
  Up (2009 film)
  Up is a 2009 American computer-animated comedy-adventure film produced by Pixar, distributed by Walt Disney Pictures and presented in Disney Digital 3-D. The film premiered on May 29, 2009 in North America and opened the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, becoming the first animated and 3D film...
  
  
• Where the Wild Things Are
  Where the Wild Things Are (film)
  Where the Wild Things Are is a 2009 American fantasy drama film directed by Spike Jonze and adapted from Maurice Sendak's 1963 children's book Where the Wild Things Are. It combines live action, performers in costumes, animatronics, and computer-generated imagery...
  
  

Top Foreign Films

• The Maid
  The Maid (2009 film)
  The Maid is a 2009 comedy-drama film, directed by Sebastián Silva and co-written by Silva and Pedro Peirano. It has won numerous awards since its premiere at the 25th Annual Sundance Film Festival...
  
  
• Revanche
  Revanche (film)
  Revanche is a 2008 Austrian thriller film written and directed by Götz Spielmann. It centers on the ill-fated love story between a Viennese ex-con and a Ukrainian prostitute who get involved in a bank robbery....
  
  
• The Song of Sparrows
  The Song of Sparrows
  The Song of Sparrows is a 2008 Iranian movie directed by Majid Majidi. It tells the story of Karim, a man who works at an ostrich farm until he is fired because one of the ostriches fled. He finds a new job in Tehran, but he faces new problems in his personal life...
  
  
• Three Monkeys
  Three Monkeys
  Three Monkeys a 2008 Turkish film directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan. The film was Turkey's official submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 81st Academy Awards, and it made the January short-list but was not nominated.-Plot:...
  
  
• The White Ribbon
  The White Ribbon
  The White Ribbon is a 2009 Austrian-German film, released in black and white, written and directed by Michael Haneke. The drama darkly depicts society and family in a northern German village just before World War I...
  
  

Top Documentaries

• Burma VJ
  Burma VJ
  Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country is a 2008 documentary film directed by Anders Østergaard. It follows the September 2007 uprisings against the military regime in Burma. Some of it was filmed on hand-held cameras, and the footage was smuggled out of the country...
  
  : Reporting From A Closed Country
• Crude
• Food, Inc.
  Food, Inc.
  Food, Inc. is a 2008 American documentary film directed by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Robert Kenner. The film examines corporate farming in the United States, concluding that agribusiness produces food that is unhealthy, in a way that is environmentally harmful and abusive of both animals and...
  
  
• Good Hair
  Good Hair
  Good Hair is a 2009 American comedy documentary film produced by Chris Rock Productions and HBO Films, starring and narrated by comedian Chris Rock. Premiering at the Sundance Film Festival on January 18, 2009, Good Hair was released to select theaters in the United States by Roadside Attractions...
  
  
• The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
  The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
  The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers is a 2009 documentary film directed by Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith...
  
  

Top Independent Films

• Amreeka
  Amreeka
  Amreeka is a 2009 American/Canadian/Kuwaiti independent film written and directed by first-time director Cherien Dabis. It stars Nisreen Faour, Melkar Muallem, Hiam Abbass, Alia Shawkat, Yussuf Abu-Warda, Joseph Ziegler, and Miriam Smith....
  
  
• District 9
  District 9
  District 9 is a 2009 South African science fiction thriller film directed by Neill Blomkamp. It was written by Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell, and produced by Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham. The film stars Sharlto Copley, Jason Cope, and David James...
  
  
• Goodbye Solo
  Goodbye Solo
  Goodbye Solo is a 2008 American independent film written and directed by Ramin Bahrani. It premiered as an official selection of the 2008 Venice Film Festival where it won the international film critic's FIPRESCI award for best film, and later had its North American premiere at the 2008 Toronto...
  
  
• Humpday
  Humpday
  Humpday is a 2009 American comedy film starring Mark Duplass, Joshua Leonard, and Alycia Delmore; and directed, produced, and written by Lynn Shelton. It premiered at the 2009 Sundance film festival. International distribution rights have been purchased by Magnolia Pictures for a mid-six figure sum...
  
  
• In the Loop
  In the Loop (film)
  In the Loop is a 2009 British satirical black comedy film directed by Armando Iannucci. It is based on the BBC Television series The Thick of It satirising Anglo-American politics in the 21st century and the Invasion of Iraq...
  
  
• Julia
  Julia (2008 film)
  Julia is a 2008 French crime drama film, directed by Erick Zonca, starring Tilda Swinton. It was shot in California and Mexico. The film was inspired by the John Cassavetes film Gloria.-Plot:...
  
  
• Me and Orson Welles
  Me and Orson Welles
  Me and Orson Welles is a 2009 period-drama film directed by Richard Linklater and starring Zac Efron, Christian McKay, and Claire Danes. Based on Robert Kaplow's novel of the same name, the story, set in 1937 New York, tells of a teenager hired to perform in Orson Welles's stage production of...
  
  
• Moon
  Moon (film)
  Moon is a 2009 British science fiction drama film about a man who experiences a personal crisis as he nears the end of a three-year solitary stint mining helium-3 on the far side of the Earth's moon. It is the feature debut of director Duncan Jones. Sam Rockwell stars as the employee Sam Bell, and...
  
  
• Sugar
  Sugar (2008 film)
  Sugar is a 2008 sports drama film directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck. It follows the story of Miguel Santos, a. k. a. Sugar , a Dominican pitcher from San Pedro de Macorís, struggling to make it to the big leagues and pull himself and his family out of poverty...
  
  
• Two Lovers
  Two Lovers (film)
  Two Lovers is a 2008 American romantic drama film, taking its inspiration from Fyodor Dostoyevsky's short story "White Nights". which was already turned into a film by Luchino Visconti: Le Notti Bianche. The movie is directed by James Gray and stars Joaquin Phoenix, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Vinessa...
  
  

Winners

• Best Film:
  • Up in the Air
    Up in the Air (film)
    Up in the Air is a 2009 American comedy-drama film directed by Jason Reitman and co-written by Reitman and Sheldon Turner. It is a film adaptation of the 2001 novel of the same name, written by Walter Kirn. The story is about a corporate downsizer Ryan Bingham and his travels...
    
    

• Best Foreign Language Film:
  • A Prophet
    A Prophet
    A Prophet is a 2009 French prison film directed by Jacques Audiard. Audiard claims that the film aims at "creating icons, images for people who don't have images in movies, like the Arabs in France," though he also had stated that the film "has nothing to do with his vision of society," and is a...
    
    , France
    France
    The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
    
    

• Best Actor (tie):
  • Morgan Freeman
    Morgan Freeman
    Morgan Freeman is an American actor, film director, aviator and narrator. He is noted for his reserved demeanor and authoritative speaking voice. Freeman has received Academy Award nominations for his performances in Street Smart, Driving Miss Daisy, The Shawshank Redemption and Invictus and won...
    
     - Invictus
    Invictus (film)
    Invictus is a 2009 biographical sports drama film directed by Clint Eastwood starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon.The story is based on the John Carlin book Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Changed a Nation about the events in South Africa before and during the 1995 Rugby World...
    
    
  • George Clooney
    George Clooney
    George Timothy Clooney is an American actor, film director, producer, and screenwriter. For his work as an actor, he has received two Golden Globe Awards and an Academy Award...
    
     - Up in the Air
    Up in the Air (film)
    Up in the Air is a 2009 American comedy-drama film directed by Jason Reitman and co-written by Reitman and Sheldon Turner. It is a film adaptation of the 2001 novel of the same name, written by Walter Kirn. The story is about a corporate downsizer Ryan Bingham and his travels...
    
    

• Best Actress:
  • Carey Mulligan
    Carey Mulligan
    Carey Hannah Mulligan is an English actress. She made her film debut as Kitty Bennet in Pride & Prejudice . She had roles in numerous British programmes and, in 2007, made her Broadway debut in The Seagull to critical acclaim....
    
     - An Education
    An Education
    An Education is a 2009 British coming-of-age drama film, based on an autobiographical article in Granta by British journalist Lynn Barber. The film was directed by Lone Scherfig from a screenplay by Nick Hornby, and stars Carey Mulligan as Jenny, a bright schoolgirl, and Peter Sarsgaard as David,...
    
    

• Best Supporting Actor:
  • Woody Harrelson
    Woody Harrelson
    Woodrow Tracy "Woody" Harrelson is an American actor.Harrelson's breakthrough role came in the television sitcom Cheers as bartender Woody Boyd...
    
     - The Messenger
    The Messenger (2009 film)
    The Messenger is a 2009 war drama film starring Ben Foster, Woody Harrelson, Steve Buscemi, Jena Malone, and Samantha Morton. It is the directorial debut of Oren Moverman, who also wrote the screenplay with Alessandro Camon....
    
    

• Best Supporting Actress:
  • Anna Kendrick
    Anna Kendrick
    Anna Kendrick is an American film and stage actress best known for the role of Natalie Keener in the 2009 film Up in the Air. Her other work includes the films Camp , Rocket Science , Scott Pilgrim vs. the World , 50/50 , and the Broadway musical High Society...
    
     - Up in the Air
    Up in the Air (film)
    Up in the Air is a 2009 American comedy-drama film directed by Jason Reitman and co-written by Reitman and Sheldon Turner. It is a film adaptation of the 2001 novel of the same name, written by Walter Kirn. The story is about a corporate downsizer Ryan Bingham and his travels...
    
    

• Breakthrough Male Performances:
  • Jeremy Renner
    Jeremy Renner
    Jeremy Lee Renner is a two-time Academy-Award-nominated American actor and musician. Renner appeared in films throughout the 2000s, mostly in supporting roles. He came to prominence in films such as Dahmer , S.W.A.T. , Neo Ned , 28 Weeks Later and The Hurt Locker...
    
     - The Hurt Locker
    The Hurt Locker
    The Hurt Locker is a 2009 American war film about a three-man United States Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal team during the Iraq War. The film was directed by Kathryn Bigelow and the screenplay was written by Mark Boal, a freelance writer who was embedded as a journalist in 2004 with a US bomb...
    
    

• Breakthrough Female Performances:
  • Gabourey Sidibe
    Gabourey Sidibe
    Gabourey "Gabby" Sidibe is an American actress who made her acting debut in the 2009 film Precious, a role that brought her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.-Early life:...
    
     - Precious
    Precious (film)
    Precious , is a 2009 American drama film directed by Lee Daniels. Precious is an adaptation by Geoffrey S. Fletcher of the 1996 novel Push by Sapphire. The film stars Gabourey Sidibe, Mo'Nique, and Paula Patton...
    
    

• Best Ensemble Cast:
  • It's Complicated
    It's Complicated (film)
    It's Complicated is a 2009 American romantic comedy film written and directed by Nancy Meyers, starring Meryl Streep, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin.-Plot:...
    
    

• Best Director:
  • Clint Eastwood
    Clint Eastwood
    Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide...
    
     - Invictus
    Invictus (film)
    Invictus is a 2009 biographical sports drama film directed by Clint Eastwood starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon.The story is based on the John Carlin book Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Changed a Nation about the events in South Africa before and during the 1995 Rugby World...
    
    

• Best Directorial Debut (tie):
  • Duncan Jones
    Duncan Jones
    Duncan Zowie Haywood Jones , also known as Zowie Bowie is an English film director, best known for directing the science fiction films Moon and Source Code .-Childhood and family life:...
    
     - Moon
    Moon (film)
    Moon is a 2009 British science fiction drama film about a man who experiences a personal crisis as he nears the end of a three-year solitary stint mining helium-3 on the far side of the Earth's moon. It is the feature debut of director Duncan Jones. Sam Rockwell stars as the employee Sam Bell, and...
    
    
  • Oren Moverman
    Oren Moverman
    Oren Moverman is an Israeli filmmaker, screenwriter, and former journalist based in New York City.Moverman was the screenwriter and associate producer of Jesus' Son, a 2000 Lion’s Gate/Alliance Release...
    
     - The Messenger
    The Messenger (2009 film)
    The Messenger is a 2009 war drama film starring Ben Foster, Woody Harrelson, Steve Buscemi, Jena Malone, and Samantha Morton. It is the directorial debut of Oren Moverman, who also wrote the screenplay with Alessandro Camon....
    
    
  • Marc Webb
    Marc Webb
    Marc Preston Webb is an American music video, short film and major motion picture director. He directed the 2009 romantic comedy-drama Days of Summer and is currently directing the 2012 Spider-Man reboot The Amazing Spider-Man.-Life and career:Webb was born in Bloomington, Indiana, the son of...
    
     - (500) Days of Summer

• Best Screenplay - Adapted:
  • Up in the Air
    Up in the Air (film)
    Up in the Air is a 2009 American comedy-drama film directed by Jason Reitman and co-written by Reitman and Sheldon Turner. It is a film adaptation of the 2001 novel of the same name, written by Walter Kirn. The story is about a corporate downsizer Ryan Bingham and his travels...
    
     - Jason Reitman
    Jason Reitman
    Jason Reitman is a Canadian/American film director, screenwriter, and producer, best known for directing the films Thank You for Smoking , Juno , and Up in the Air . As of February 2, 2010, he has received three Academy Award nominations, two of which are for Best Director...
    
     & Sheldon Turner
    Sheldon Turner
    Sheldon Turner is a screenwriter and producer. His produced credits as a screenwriter include The Longest Yard , The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning , Up in the Air and X-Men: First Class ....
    
    

• Best Screenplay - Original:
  • A Serious Man
    A Serious Man
    A Serious Man is a 2009 dark comedy written, produced, and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. The film stars Michael Stuhlbarg as a Minnesota Jewish man whose life crumbles both professionally and personally, leading to questions about his faith...
    
     - Joel Coen & Ethan Coen

• Freedom of Expression Award (tie):
  • Burma VJ: Reporting From A Closed Country
    Burma VJ
    Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country is a 2008 documentary film directed by Anders Østergaard. It follows the September 2007 uprisings against the military regime in Burma. Some of it was filmed on hand-held cameras, and the footage was smuggled out of the country...
    
    
  • Invictus
    Invictus (film)
    Invictus is a 2009 biographical sports drama film directed by Clint Eastwood starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon.The story is based on the John Carlin book Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Changed a Nation about the events in South Africa before and during the 1995 Rugby World...
    
    
  • The Most Dangerous Man In America: Daniel Ellseberg And The Pentagon Papers

• Special Filmmaking Achievement Award:
  • Wes Anderson
    Wes Anderson
    Wesley Wales Anderson is an American film director, screenwriter, actor, and producer of features, short films and commercials....
    
     - The Fantastic Mr. Fox

• William K. Everson Award for Film History:
  • Jean Picker Firstenberg
    Jean Picker Firstenberg
    Jean Picker Firstenberg has been the CEO and Director of the American Film Institute since 1980 till her retirement in 2007. After studying at Mount Holyoke College, she attended Boston University, from which she graduated summa cum laude in 1958....