FFCC Announce 2009 Winners

The Florida Film Critics Circle (FFCC) named “Up In The Air” its Best Picture of 2009, according to a recent press release. The film, about a man who travels the country to fire people for big corporations, won a total of three awards, including Best Director (Jason Reitman) and Best Actor (George Clooney).

Director Lee Daniels’ acclaimed independent film “Precious” won both Best Actress (Gabourey Sidibe) and Best Supporting Actress (Mo’Nique). Sidibe also won the Pauline Kael Breakout award. The Best Supporting Actor award went to Christoph Waltz for his performance as a Nazi commander in Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds.”

The group’s closest competition was for Best Screenplay, in which the writers of “(500) Days of Summer,” Scott Neustadter and Michael Weber, narrowly defeated Reitman and Sheldon Turner’s script for “Up In The Air.” 

In other awards, Mauro Fiore won Best Cinematography for “Avatar,” “Up” was the runaway winner for Best Animated Film, “Sin Nombre” won Foreign Language Film and the dolphin-killing polemic “The Cove” took Best Documentary.

Founded in 1996, the Florida Film Critics Circle is comprised of 17 writers from state publications. Hudakonhollywood.com and Lead film columnist Dan Hudak, has served as chairman since March 2008. For more information on the FFCC, visit floridafilmcriticscircle.webs.com.

Complete list of winners:
Picture: Up In The Air
Actor: George Clooney, Up In The Air
Actress: Gabourey Sidibe, Precious
Supp. Actor: Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
Supp. Actress: Mo’Nique, Precious
Director: Jason Reitman, Up In The Air
Screenplay: Scott Neustadter and Michael Weber, (500) Days of Summer Cinematography: Mauro Fiore, Avatar
Foreign Language: Sin Nombre
Animated Feature: Up
Documentary: The Cove
Breakout: Gabourey Sidibe, Precious
Golden Orange: No Award

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