The Hurt Locker earned three of The National Society Of Film Critics’ top 2009 prizes, claiming best picture, best director for Kathryn Bigelow and best actor for Jeremy Renner.

The Society’s 64 members voted using a weighted ballot system and awarded the best picture prize to the Iraq war tale by a clear margin. It earned 64 votes, followed by Olivier Assayas’ Summer Hours with 23 and Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds with 17.

Summer Hours dominated the foreign language category with 61 votes, followed by Jan Troell’s Everlasting Moments on 21, Corneliu Porumboiu’s Police, Adjective and Claire Denis’ 35 Shots Of Rum on 20 apiece.

Bigelow was the clear winner in the director’s category on 85 votes, followed by Assayas with 23 and Wes Anderson with 18 for Fantastic Mr Fox.

Jeremy Renner (pictured) won a close best actor contest, taking 30 votes ahead of 24 for Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart and 15 for Nicolas Cage for Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans.

Yolande Moreau won best actress with 22 votes for her performance in Seraphine, followed by Meryl Streep on 21 for Julie & Juliaand Fantastic Mr Fox and Abbie Cornish in third place with 19 for Bright Star.

Mo’Nique won best supporting actress for her role in Precious with 28 votes, beating out Anna Kendrick for Up In The Air and Samantha Morton for The Messenger, each of whom earned 24.

A remarkably tight best supporting actor contest saw Inglourous Basterds’ Christoph Waltz tie with Paul Schneider from Bright Star on 28 votes, closely followed on 27 by Christian McKay from Me And Orson Welles.

Anges Varda’s The Beaches Of Agnes won best non-fiction film, Joel and Ethan Coen took the screenplay prize for A Serious Man, Christian Berger won for his cinematography on The White Ribbon, and Nelson Lowry took top honours for his production design on Fantastic Mr Fox.

The Film Heritage Award went to the restoration of Rashomon by the Academy Film Archive, the National Film Center Of The National Museum Of Modern Art, Tokyo, and Kadokawa Pictures, Inc. Other recipients were Bruce Posner for his restoration of Manhatta; Treasures From American Film Archives, Vol. 4:  Avant Garde 1947-1986  (National Film Preservation Foundation); Warner Archive Collection; UCLA Film &Television Archive for its restoration of The Red Shoes; and Kino International Avant-Garde Volume 3 (Experimental Cinema 1922-1954).

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