# 15th Critics' Choice Awards

The 15th Critics' Choice Awards were presented on January 15, 2010 at the Hollywood Palladium, honoring the finest achievements of 2009 filmmaking. The ceremony was broadcast on VH1 and hosted by Kristin Chenoweth. The nominees were announced on December 14, 2009.
The awards expanded this year from 16 to 24 film categories, adding seven technical categories and separating its screenplay category into adapted and original slots, to more closely mirror the Academy Awards.
The World War II epic Inglourious Basterds and romantic musical drama Nine both received a record ten nominations each, which was unprecedented at the time. Both films received numerous nominations in the awards' new craft categories, benefiting from the recent expansion of the categories. In the following years, this record has been broken several times. Avatar followed close behind with nine nominations and won the most awards of the night with a then-record-breaking six wins.

## Winners and nominees

| Best Picture The Hurt Locker Avatar An Education Inglourious Basterds Invictus Nine Precious A Serious Man Up Up in the Air | Best Director Kathryn Bigelow – The Hurt Locker James Cameron – Avatar Lee Daniels – Precious Clint Eastwood – Invictus Jason Reitman – Up in the Air Quentin Tarantino – Inglourious Basterds |
| Best Actor Jeff Bridges – Crazy Heart as Otis "Bad" Blake George Clooney – Up in the Air as Ryan Bingham Colin Firth – A Single Man as George Falconer Morgan Freeman – Invictus as Nelson Mandela Viggo Mortensen – The Road as Man Jeremy Renner – The Hurt Locker as Sergeant First Class William James | Best Actress Sandra Bullock – The Blind Side as Leigh Anne Tuohy (TIE) Meryl Streep – Julie & Julia as Julia Child (TIE) Emily Blunt – The Young Victoria as Queen Victoria Carey Mulligan – An Education as Jenny Mellor Saoirse Ronan – The Lovely Bones as Susie Salmon Gabourey Sidibe – Precious as Claireece "Precious" Jones |
| Best Supporting Actor Christoph Waltz – Inglourious Basterds as Col. Hans Landa Matt Damon – Invictus as Francois Pienaar Woody Harrelson – The Messenger as Captain Tony Stone Christian McKay – Me and Orson Welles as Orson Welles Alfred Molina – An Education as Jack Meller Stanley Tucci – The Lovely Bones as George Harvey | Best Supporting Actress Mo'Nique – Precious as Mary Lee Johnston Marion Cotillard – Nine as Luisa Acari Contini Vera Farmiga – Up in the Air as Alex Goran Anna Kendrick – Up in the Air as Natalie Keener Julianne Moore – A Single Man as Charley Roberts Samantha Morton – The Messenger as Olivia Pitterson |
| Best Young Actor/Actress Saoirse Ronan – The Lovely Bones as Susie Salmon Jae Head – The Blind Side as S.J. Tuohy Bailee Madison – Brothers as Isabelle Cahill Max Records – Where the Wild Things Are as Max Kodi Smit-McPhee – The Road as Boy | Best Acting Ensemble Inglourious Basterds Nine Precious Star Trek Up in the Air |
| Best Original Screenplay Inglourious Basterds – Quentin Tarantino (500) Days of Summer – Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber The Hurt Locker – Mark Boal A Serious Man – Joel Coen and Ethan Coen Up – Pete Docter and Bob Peterson | Best Adapted Screenplay Up in the Air – Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner District 9 – Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell An Education – Nick Hornby Fantastic Mr. Fox – Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach Precious – Geoffrey S. Fletcher A Single Man – Tom Ford and David Scearce |
| Best Animated Feature Up Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Coraline Fantastic Mr. Fox The Princess and the Frog | Best Documentary Feature The Cove Anvil! The Story of Anvil Capitalism: A Love Story Food, Inc. Michael Jackson's This Is It |
| Best Action Movie Avatar District 9 The Hurt Locker Inglourious Basterds Star Trek | Best Comedy Movie The Hangover (500) Days of Summer It's Complicated The Proposal Zombieland |
| Best Foreign Language Film Broken Embraces • Spain Coco Before Chanel • France Red Cliff • China Sin nombre • Mexico / United States The White Ribbon • Austria / France / Germany / Italy | Best Art Direction Avatar – Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg (Production Design) / Kim Sinclair (Set Decoration) Inglourious Basterds – David Wasco (Production Design) / Sandy Reynolds-Wasco (Set Decoration) The Lovely Bones – Naomi Shohan (Production Design) / George DeTitta Jr. (Set Decoration) Nine – John Myhre (Production Design) / Gordon Sim (Set Decoration) A Single Man – Dan Bishop (Production Design) / Amy Wells (Set Decoration) |
| Best Cinematography Avatar – Mauro Fiore The Hurt Locker – Barry Ackroyd Inglourious Basterds – Robert Richardson The Lovely Bones – Andrew Lesnie Nine – Dion Beebe | Best Costume Design The Young Victoria – Sandy Powell Bright Star – Janet Patterson Inglourious Basterds – Anna B. Sheppard Nine – Colleen Atwood Where the Wild Things Are – Casey Storm |
| Best Editing Avatar – James Cameron, John Refoua, and Stephen E. Rivkin The Hurt Locker – Chris Innis and Bob Murawski Inglourious Basterds – Sally Menke Nine – Claire Simpson and Wyatt Smith Up in the Air – Dana E. Glauberman | Best Makeup District 9 Avatar Nine The Road Star Trek |
| Best Score Up – Michael Giacchino The Informant! – Marvin Hamlisch The Princess and the Frog – Randy Newman Sherlock Holmes – Hans Zimmer Where the Wild Things Are – Carter Burwell and Karen O | Best Song "The Weary Kind" – Crazy Heart "All Is Love" – Where the Wild Things Are "Almost There" – The Princess and the Frog "Cinema Italiano" – Nine "(I Want to) Come Home" – Everybody's Fine |
| Best Sound Avatar District 9 The Hurt Locker Nine Star Trek | Best Visual Effects Avatar 2012 District 9 The Lovely Bones Star Trek |

### Joel Siegel Award

Kevin Bacon

### Best Picture Made for Television

Grey Gardens
* Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story
* Into the Storm
* Taking Chance

## Statistics

| Nominations | Film |
| 10 | Inglourious Basterds |
| 10 | Nine |
| 9 | Avatar |
| 8 | The Hurt Locker |
| 8 | Up in the Air |
| 6 | The Lovely Bones |
| 6 | Precious |
| 5 | District 9 |
| 5 | Star Trek |
| 4 | An Education |
| 4 | Invictus |
| 4 | A Single Man |
| 4 | Up |
| 4 | Where the Wild Things Are |
| 3 | The Princess and the Frog |
| 3 | The Road |
| 2 | (500) Days of Summer |
| 2 | The Blind Side |
| 2 | Crazy Heart |
| 2 | Fantastic Mr. Fox |
| 2 | The Messenger |
| 2 | A Serious Man |
| 2 | The Young Victoria |
| Wins | Film |
| 6 | Avatar |
| 3 | Inglourious Basterds |
| 2 | Crazy Heart |
| 2 | The Hurt Locker |
| 2 | Up |