The highs and lows of 2009
Best film:
The White Ribbon, in which Michael Haneke used an outbreak of violence in a German village in 1914 as a metaphor for the rise of Nazism.
Worst film:
A category in which one is always spoilt for choice, but Amelia, the biopic of American aviatrix Amelia Earhart starring Hilary Swank and a glassy-eyed Richard Gere, is definitely up there.
Best director:
Michael Haneke.
Worst director:
It would have to be Richard Curtis, for his dire pirate radio comedy, The Boat That Rocked.
Best performance:
Christian McKay's mesmerising, note-perfect turn as a young Orson Welles in Richard Linklater's Me and Orson Welles.
Worst performance:
Jamie Foxx playing a mentally ill homeless classical musician in The Soloist.
Biggest grossing film:
James Cameron's Avatar may yet overtake it, but at the moment it's Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which has to date raked in almost a billion dollars worldwide.
Biggest disappointment:
Zach Snyder's Watchmen, in which the chance to make a truly memorable sci-fi film was well and truly missed.
Best Irish film:
The beautifully made animation, The Secret of Kells.
Worst Irish film:
Happy Ever Afters, the wedding comedy without any jokes.
Irish Independent
