The year was 2009. The highest grossing film of all time comes out. An animated film gets a Best Picture nomination (for only the second time in history.) And a woman wins Best Director.

All in all, the academy and online bloggers have some disagreements when it came to recognizing the best of 2009 in film. Let’s take a closer look.

BEST PICTURE

(500) Days Of Summer
Avatar
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Hurt Locker
Inglorious Basterds
Precious
A Serious Man
Up
Up In The Air
Where The Wild Things Are

The Academy match up is 7/10. This really shows how ‘fantastical’ 2009 was as a year in film. And the win goes to Inglorious Bastards, differing from the academy. although I believe Hurt Locker was #2.

RUNNERS UP: Bright Star, An Education

BEST DIRECTOR

Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
James Cameron, Avatar
Michael Haneke, The White Ribbon
Jason Reitman, Up In The Air
Quentin Tarantino, Inglorious Basterds

4/5. And you both agree on the winner. To rephrase something Ellen DeGeneres said, “Possibility #1, Kathryn Bigelow wins Best Director. Possibility #2, you’re all sexist.”

RUNNERS UP: Spike Jonze, Where The Wild Things Are, Jacques Audiard, A Prophet

BEST ACTOR

Jeff Bridges as ‘Bad Blake’ in Crazy Heart
George Clooney as ‘Ryan Bingham’ in Up In The Air
Colin Firth as ‘George’ in A Single Man
Joseph Gordon-Levitt as ‘Tom’ in (500) Days Of Summer
Jeremy Renner as ‘Sergeant First Class William James’ in The Hurt Locker

4/5. Bloggers seem to prefer Firth to Bridges, at least this year.

RUNNERS UP: Michael Stuhlbarg as ‘Larry Gopnik’ in A Serious Man, Viggo Mortensen as ‘Man’ in The Road

BEST ACTRESS

Charlotte Gainsbourg as ‘She’ in Antichrist
Carey Mulligan as ‘Jenny Mellor’ in An Education
Gabourey Sidibe as ‘Precious’ in Precious
Meryl Streep as ‘Julia Child’ in Julie & Julia
Tilda Swinton as ‘Julia’ in Julia

3/5. Wow, no Bullock. Talk about sticking it to the Academy.

RUNNERS UP: Abbie Cornish as ‘Fanny Brawne’ in Bright Star, Penelope Cruz as ‘Lena’ in Broken Embraces

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Peter Capaldi as ‘Malcolm Tucker’ in In The Loop
Woody Harrelson as ‘Captain Tony Stone’ in The Messenger
Anthony Mackie as ‘Sergeant JT Sanborn’ The Hurt Locker
Stanley Tucci as ‘George Harvey’ in The Lovely Bones
Christolph Waltz as ‘Col. Hans Landa’ in Inglorious Basterds

3/5. Well, fine set of nominees, and an obvious winner here.

RUNNERS UP: Niles Arestrup as ‘César Luciani’ in A Prophet, Alfred Molina as ‘Jack Mellor’ in An Education

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Vera Farmiga as ‘Alex Goran’ in Up In The Air
Anna Kendrick as ‘Natalie Keener’ in Up In The Air
Diane Kruger as ‘Bridget von Hammersmark’ in Inglorious Basterds 
Melanie Laurent as ‘Shosanna’ in Inglorious Basterds
Mo’Nique as ‘Mary’ in Precious

3/5. Once again, an obvious winner. And wouldn’t it have been weird to see TWO sets of double nominees in one category? Although I have to say, there’s one performance that deserved MUCH more love in this category, and that is Teri Hatcher’s bone chilling vocal work in Coraline.

RUNNERS UP: Marion Cotillard as ‘Luisa Contini’ in Nine, Julianne Moore as ‘Charley’ in A Single Man

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

(500) Days Of Summer
The Hurt Locker
Inglorious Basterds
A Serious Man
Up

4/5. Not to shabby on the nominees, but there was clearly some disagreement regarding the winner.

RUNNERS UP: The White Ribbon, A Prophet

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Fantastic Mr. Fox
In The Loop
Precious
Up In The Air
Where The Wild Things Are

3/5. And now both screenplay categories have different winners than the Oscars.

RUNNERS UP: An Education, District 9

BEST FILM EDITING

Avatar
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Inglorious Basterds
Up in The Air

4/5. This could have very easily been the Oscar category, but apparently they liked the editing in Precious more than Up In The Air

RUNNERS UP: (500) Days Of Summer, Star Trek

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Bright Star
The Hurt Locker
Inglorious Basterds
Where The Wild Things Are
The White Ribbon

3/5. The winner here surprised me, but maybe Bright Star is just a movie more people need to see.

RUNNERS UP: Nine, Avatar

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

Avatar
Coraline
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Inglorious Basterds
The White Ribbon

1/5. Wow, TWO animated films are in this category! And of course, Pandora takes the production design award.

RUNNERS UP: Sherlock Holmes, Where The Wild Things Are

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

Bright Star
Inglorious Basterds
An Education
A Single Man
Nine

2/5. Eesh, there’s not a lot of agreement here.

RUNNERS UP: The Young Victoria, Coco For Chanel

BEST MAKEUP & HAIR

District 9
The Road
Star Trek

1/3. Even less agreement here!

RUNNERS UP: Inglorious Bastards, Drag Me To Hell

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

Avatar
District 9
Where The Wild Things Are

2/3. I’m gonna try to make sure to make the number of nominees the same as what the Academy ruled eligible. Also, obvious winner

RUNNER’S UP: Star Trek, Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

Broken Embraces
A Single Man
Star Trek
Up
Where The Wild Things Are

1/5. But at least the winner is consistent.

RUNNERS UP: Avatar, The Informant!

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

“All Is Love” from Where The Wild Things Are
“Help Yourself” from Up In The Air
“Take It All” from Nine
“The Weary Kind” from Crazy Heart
“You’ve Got Me Wrapped Around Your Little Finger” from An Education

2/5. Well, this hasn’t been matching up with the Academy as well as I’d hoped. Also, I’d just like to point out, there’s one truly great song that for some reason wasn’t eligible with the Academy. I guess it was more the movie being written for the song and not the other way around, but… “Life’s a climb. But the view’s great.”

RUNNERS UP: “Cinema Italiano” from Nine, “Almost There” from The Princess & The Frog

BEST SOUND EDITING

Avatar
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Star Trek
Up

4/5. Bloggers were more impressed with the sound design in the world of Pandora than the sound design in the world of, uh, Iraq.

RUNNERS UP: Where The Wild Things Are, Inglorious Bastards

BEST SOUND MIXING

Avatar
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Inglorious Bastards
Star Trek

4/5. Sometimes I think things might be more orderly if they just combined the two sound categories into one.

RUNNERS UP: Up, Where The Wild Things Are

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

Coraline
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Ponyo
The Princess & The Frog
Up

4/5. But people seemed to get it right where it counted. Man, those opening ten minutes of Up…

RUNNERS UP: Mary & Max, The Secret Of Kells

BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM

Broken Embraces
A Prophet
Ponyo
The Secret In Their Eyes
The White Ribbon

3/5. Michael Haneke now has 2 wins in this category. Impressive.

RUNNERS UP: Samson & Delilah, The Milk Of Sorrow

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Anvil! The Story Of Anvil
Burma VJ
Every Little Step
The Cove
Food Inc.

3/5. This win was pretty much inevitable, given how much the documentary is loved.

RUNNERS UP: Michael Jackson: This Is It, Capitalism: A Love Story

And the ultimate snub of 2009 is…

DISTRICT 9 for BEST MAKEUP

Certainly a very confusing snub, considering how the film managed editing and writing nominations. But bloggers made certain to right this wrong.

Now before I move on to 2008, I’m gonna wait a while and try to get THIS year. I think it’s gonna be great to see a great year in a film represented fairly, unlike what the Academy is doing. I can guarantee that with the 2014 Ultimate Snub, everything WILL be awesome.