2009 in film

The year 2009 saw the release of many films. Seven made the top 50 list of highest-grossing films. Also in 2009, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that as of that year, their Best Picture category would consist of ten nominees, rather than five (the first time since the 1943 awards).

Evaluation of the year

Film critic Philip French of ''The Guardian'' said that 2009 "began with the usual flurry of serious major movies given late December screenings in Los Angeles to qualify for the Oscars. They're now forgotten or vaguely regarded as semi-classics: ''The Reader'', ''Che'', ''Slumdog Millionaire'', '' Frost/Nixon'', ''Revolutionary Road'', '' The Wrestler'', '' Gran Torino'', '' The Curious Case of Benjamin Button''. It soon became apparent that horror movies would be the dominant genre once again, with vampires the pre-eminent sub-species, the most profitable inevitably being ''New Moon'', the latest in Stephenie Meyer's ''Twilight'' saga, the best the subtle Swedish '' Let the Right One In'' and the worst the British horror spoof '' Lesbian Vampire Killers''. Documentaries continued to flourish, introducing us to fascinating new worlds: Afghan TV talent shows ('' Afghan Star''), Australian exploitation cinema (''Not Quite Hollywood''), haute couture ('' The September Issue''). Animation thrived, the 3-D comeback threatened to become permanent rather than a gimmick, and the two were conjoined in a dozen 3-D animated features, the finest being Pixar's '' Up''. Remakes and sequels abounded, none of any merit. The same went for films based on comic strips and graphic novels. British cinema generally bubbled in the doldrums. The well-acted '' Fish Tank'' was overrated, as was the dull costume drama '' The Young Victoria''. The best films by native directors were fuelled by our obsession with soccer ( Ken Loach's '' Looking for Eric'' and Tom Hooper's ''The Damned United'') or directed by foreigners (New Zealander Jane Campion's '' Bright Star'', and two films by Danes: Nicholas Winding Refn's '' Bronson'' and Lone Scherfig's '' An Education''). The most original British film was Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor's low-key, low-budget ''Helen'', a formally innovative look at provincial life. 2009 was a mostly undistinguished year for Hollywood, with indifferent films from Woody Allen ('' Vicky Cristina Barcelona''), Michael Mann ('' Public Enemies'') and others, and deadly blockbusters such as ''Angels & Demons'' and ''2012''. The Coen brothers, however, were on form, examining their midwestern Jewish roots in '' A Serious Man'', and Kathryn Bigelow's ''The Hurt Locker'' was the best film yet about Iraq. From Europe we had several striking revisionist accounts of violent resistance to Nazi occupation in the second world war: '' Flammen & Citronen'' (Denmark), '' Max Manus: Man of War'' (Norway) and ''The Army of Crime'' (France). But they were drowned in the tsunami of Quentin Tarantino's lunatic second world war fantasy '' Inglourious Basterds''. The most likable European picture was the Italian ''Mid-August Lunch'', the directorial debut of 60-year-old Gianni Di Gregorio (screenwriter on '' Gomorrah''), and the three most memorably argumentative and provocative were Paolo Sorrentino's ''Il Divo'', Lars von Trier's ''Antichrist'' and Michael Haneke's '' The White Ribbon''. The performances I most enjoyed were impersonations: Meryl Streep's Julia Child ('' Julie & Julia'') and Christian McKay's Orson in '' Me and Orson Welles''."

Highest-grossing films

The top 10 films released in 2009 by worldwide gross are as follows:

''Avatar'' surpassed ''Titanic'' as the highest-grossing film of all time on January 25, 2010. ''Avatar'' then became the first film to earn more than $2 billion at the box office on January 31, 2010. ''Avatar'' was surpassed by '' Avengers: Endgame'' as the highest-grossing film of all time on July 21, 2019. Due to a re-release, ''Avatar'' retook the title from ''Endgame'' on March 13, 2021.

Events

Awards

2009 films

The list of films released in 2009, arranged by country, are as follows:
* American films
* Argentine films
* Australian films
* Bengali films
* Bollywood films
* Brazilian films
* British films
* French films
* Hong Kong films
* Italian films
* Japanese films
* Mexican films
* Malayalam films
* Pakistani films
* Russian films
* South Korean films
* Spanish films
* Tamil films
* Telugu films

Births

*January 23 - Winslow Fegley, American actor
*January 26 - YaYa Gosselin, American actress
*April 15 - Julia Butters, American actress
*May 18 - Hala Finley, American actress
*June 23 - Xia Vigor, British-Filipino actress

Deaths

Film Debuts

* Gal Gadot – ''Fast & Furious''
* Chris Hemsworth – ''Star Trek''
* Gabby Sidibe – '' Precious''

References

External links

2009 release schedule at Box Office Mojo

{{DEFAULTSORT:2009 In Film

Film by year