The Iraq War drama “The Hurt Locker” was chosen as the year's best picture Sunday by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. The film also won the group's best-director honor for Kathryn Bigelow. The group named Jeff Bridges as best actor for the country-music tale “Crazy Heart” and Yolande Moreau as best actress for the French film “Seraphine.” The lead-actor runners-up were Colin Firth for “A Single Man” and Carey Mulligan for “An Education.” Mo'Nique won the supporting-actress award for “Precious: Based on the Novel `Push' by Sapphire” and Austrian-born Christoph Waltz earned the supporting-actor prize for playing a gleefully savage Nazi in “Inglourious Basterds.” The runners-up for the supporting honors were Anna Kendrick for “Up in the Air” and Peter Capaldi for “In the Loop.” The critics' prizes are among early honors on Hollywood's long run-up to the Academy Awards on March 7. Oscar nominations come out Feb. 2. While audiences generally have shied away from war-on-terror dramas, “The Hurt Locker” did solid business and earned glowing reviews. The film stars Jeremy Renner as a US bomb technician in Iraq so addicted to his dangerous job that he puts the lives of colleagues at risk. George Clooney's comedy “Up in the Air” was runner-up for best picture. Critics picked his “Fantastic Mr. Fox” as the year's best animated film. The blockbuster “Up” was the animation runner
