Florida film critics pick 2009 winners!

here's a news piece from joe belcastro of the tampa movie news..

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December 21 - The Florida Film Critics Circle (FFCC) has named Up In The Air its Best Picture of 2009. 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).

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.

As a member, most of the awards went the way I would have thought. My only gripes are with the best actor award and the breakout award. George Clooney did a fine job in Up in the Air but it's something we've seen out of him before. Clooney plays the role like many others he's done over the years. This was a role where he could play himself in how the film portrays his lifestyle. If you saw The Men Who Stare at Goats earlier this year, he gave a much better performance in that, in terms of acting. Personally, Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart, Morgan Freeman as Mandela, and my sleeper pick of Brad Pitt for his work in Inglourious Basterds topped Clooney.

In the breakout award category, giving the award to Gabourey Sidibe for her role in Precious is fine. Except for the fact that we voted her in the best actress category as well. In the breakout category, I felt Sharlto Copley, who played the rebel FBI agent in District 9, deserved consideration. That being said, Sidibe winning best actress over the likes of Meryl Streep and Sandra Bullock is quite impressive.

For best picture, it could have gone either way. Yes, there's a lot of flicks in the running this year, because it is a weak year. Nobody really grabbed the voter's attention like in previous years. Still hoping (500) Days of Summer wins best picture at the big-boy award shows in the upcoming months.