NEW YORK - The National Society of Film Critics has selected "The Hurt Locker" as the best picture of 2009 at a meeting in New York City.
The movie about an elite Army bomb squad unit in Iraq also drew top honours for director Kathryn Bigelow and actor Jeremy Renner during Sunday's voting.
The society chose Yolande Moreau as best actress for her performance in "Seraphine," a French film about the painter Seraphine de Senlis.
Joel and Ethan Coen won best screenplay for "A Serious Man," while "The Beaches of Agnes 40" was selected as the best nonfiction film.
Forty-six of the society's 64 members voted.
The society often picks foreign films or critics' darlings. Rarely do the selections mirror the Academy Awards, which are set for March 7.
