The Golden Monkey Awards: Our Best in Film for 2009

Posted by: Paul Little  •  March 7, 2010 @ 3:20am

Filed under: SBM Awards

Tonight the film world came together to celebrate the best in motion pictures with the 82nd Academy Awards. We love the Oscars here at ShowbizMonkeys.com -- the movie stars, the spectacle, the whole thing -- but we also like picking our own favourites in movies. Since this site began under our old name in 2001, we've been choosing our own top movies of the year. But beginning this year, we're running things more like the major awards shows themselves -- minus the stars and the spectacle, of course!

So, we present to you the Golden Monkey Motion Picture Achievement Awards, honouring what we believe to be the best in film for 2009. There are 10 categories: Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Animated Film, Best Documentary, Best Original Song, and of course, Best Picture. Our staff, which stretches across North America, submitted their choices for their favourites in each category, and from those selections, we put together our nominees. Then we put our nominees to a vote, and came up with these winners -- our collective favourites from the last year.

Things were extremely close in every category except two -- Best Supporting Actor and Best Original Song. Our choices may not line up with the nominees and winners at this year's Oscars, partly because of tastes may differ from the Academy's and partly because of the accessibility to some of the smaller films (our voting was done at the beginning of 2010). Films like Precious and The Hurt Locker are not as represented on our lists, despite being extremely award-worthy films, but we think that's what makes our lists stand out. If our opinions were the same as those of Oscar voters, then it would make for a boring read (though it would make us plenty of money in Vegas!).

Be sure to let us know what you think of our winners and nominees. Are we off our rockers for some of our picks? Are there any glaring omissions? Or do you think we did all right? Let us know!

Best Picture

The Nominees:

• (500) Days of Summer
• Avatar
• District 9
• The Hurt Locker
• I Love You, Man
• Inglourious Basterds
• Julie & Julia
• Star Trek
• Up
• Up in the Air

The Winner:

• Star Trek

Best Actor

The Nominees:

• Joseph Gordon-Levitt in (500) Days of Summer
• Jesse Eisenberg in Adventureland
• Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart
• Sharlto Copley in District 9
• Robert Downey, Jr. in Sherlock Holmes
• George Clooney in Up in the Air

The Winner:

• Joseph Gordon-Levitt in (500) Days of Summer

Best Actress

The Nominees:

• Sandra Bullock in The Blindside
• Abbie Cornish in Bright Star
• Carey Mulligan in An Education
• Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia
• Saorise Ronan in The Lovely Bones
• Ellen Page in Whip It

The Winner:

• Carey Mulligan in An Education

Best Supporting Actor

The Nominees:

• Paul Schneider in Bright Star
• Andy Samberg in I Love You, Man
• Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds
• Stanley Tucci in The Lovely Bones
• Simon Pegg in Star Trek

The Winner:

• Christoph Waltz in Inglorious Basterds

Best Supporting Actress

The Nominees:

• Catinca Untaru in The Fall
• Diane Kruger in Inglourious Basterds
• Melanie Lauret in Inglourious Basterds
• Rachel McAdams in State of Play
• Vera Farmiga in Up in the Air
• Anna Kendrick in Up in the Air

The Winner:

• Anna Kendrick in Up in the Air

Best Director

The Nominees:

• James Cameron for Avatar
• Quentin Tarantino for Inglourious Basterds
• J.J. Abrams for Star Trek
• Pete Doctor & Bob Peterson for Up
• Jason Reitman for Up in the Air

The Winner:

• J.J. Abrams for Star Trek

Best Screenplay

The Nominees:

• Neill Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell for District 9
• Quentin Tarantino for Inglourious Basterds
• Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman for Star Trek
• Pete Doctor & Bob Peterson for Up
• Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner for Up in the Air

The Winner:

• Pete Doctor & Bob Peterson for Up

Best Animated Film

The Nominees:

• Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
• Coraline
• Ponyo
• The Fantastic Mr. Fox
• Up

The Winner:

• Up

Best Documentary

The Nominees:

• Anvil! The Story of Anvil
• The Cove
• Every Little Step
• Food Inc.
• It Might Get Loud

The Winner:

• The Cove

Best Original Song

The Nominees:

• Joshua Radin ft. Maria Taylor - "When You Find Me" (Adam)
• Ryan Bingham - "The Weary Kind" (Crazy Heart)
• Lykke Li - "Possibility" (New Moon)
• Jack Savoretti - "One Day" (Post Grad)
• Kevin Renick - "Up in the Air" (Up in the Air)

The Winner:

• Ryan Bingham - "The Weary Kind" (Crazy Heart)

Other Favourite Movies

• Defiance
• Fifty Dead Men Walking
• State of Play
• Antichrist
• Taken
• Sherlock Holmes
• Zombieland
• Gomorrah
• Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
• Broken Embraces
• Whip It!
• Adventureland
• Duplicity
• The Hangover
• One Week
• Red Cliff
• Drag Me to Hell
• An Education
• Away We Go
• 17 Again
• The Fantastic Mr. Fox
• In the Loop
• Funny People
• X-Men Origins: Wolverine
• Watchmen
• Moon
• Chocolate
• Observe and Report
• Angels & Demons
• Brothers
• The Lovely Bones
• A Single Man
• Black Dynamite
• The Proposal
• It's Complicated

Check out our past years' best in film: 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001

Tags: The Golden Monkeys, lists, awards, Star Trek, Up, Carey Mulligan, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Christoph Walz, Anna Kendrick, J.J. Abrams

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Paul Little is the founder and Managing Editor of ShowbizMonkeys.com. When not interviewing his favourite musicians and comedians, he can also be found putting on and promoting music and comedy events with The Purple Room in Winnipeg, or co-producing the live comedy game shows Pants on Fire and The Great Patio Showdown. (@comedygeek)