The critics have spoken.

As 2009 winds down, the country's film critics -- always fond of labeling the best and worst in the world of movies -- have gathered together to cast their votes for the top films, actors, actresses, writers, cinematographers and musicians of the year.

This year, as the votes have come in from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the Boston Society of Film Critics, the New York Film Critics Online and the The Washington, D.C. Area Film Critics Association, a pattern has emerged: Kathryn Bigelow's 'The Hurt Locker,' a harrowing film about an elite Army bomb squad in Iraq, took the top honors from the Boston and Los Angeles critics, while the director herself nabbed best director nods from Boston, L.A., NYFCO (who choose 'Avatar' as the best film) and Washington (who picked 'Up in the Air' as best film).

Is 'The Hurt Locker' heading for an upset of Oscar favorites 'Precious' and 'Up in the Air'? The action drama about an Iraq War bomb squad suddenly looks like an awards season front-runner, thanks to votes of confidence from the Boston and Los Angeles film critics groups.

The Boston Society of Film Critics gave the movie an especially strong endorsement in Sunday's announcement of the BSFC's annual film awards, with 'Hurt Locker' taking home five prizes (the most the BSFC has ever given to a single movie), including Best Picture.

Got $700 burning a hole in your pocket this holiday season? Yeah, we don't either.

If we did, though, we would be seriously tempted by Taschen's gorgeous new limited-edition book, 'Stanley Kubrick: The Film That Never Was,' a history of Kubrick's never-made movie 'Napoleon.'

New Walt Disney chief Rich Ross has continued his revisionist streak by nixing another project.

The Hollywood Reporter brings news that, hot on the heels of canceling what would've been a major tentpole release, 'Captain Nemo: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,' Ross has now put the kibosh on 'Wedding Banned,' a comedy that was set to star Robin Williams, Diane Keaton and Anna Faris. The production company, Mandeville Films, is now free to shop the project around town.

It's illegal to videotape a vampire, but it's not necessarily a prosecutable offense.

Authorities decided to drop charges against 22-year-old Samantha Tumpach, a Chicago-area 'Twilight' fan who was arrested for taping snippets of 'The Twilight Saga: New Moon' in a movie theater during her sister's birthday party, according to a report in The Wrap.

A cute and fuzzy biopic about Muppets creator Jim Henson (said to be in the same vein as Jim Carrey's 'The Man on the Moon') is tops on a list of high-profile that are loved by Hollywood execs but have yet to be produced.

'The Muppet Man,' a biopic about Henson, who died of streptococcus pneumonia in 1990, is No. 1 on Hollywood's influential "Black List," a poll which asks 311 top entertainment executives to name their favorite projects that have not been made into movies. Written by 29-year-old Christopher Weekes, 'The Muppet Man' is said to be very well done.

There's a poignant scene near the end of Wim Wenders' documentary 'Buena Vista Social Club' in which legendary Cuban singer Ibrahim Ferrer is strolling the streets of Manhattan for the first time, at the age of 72. As he gazes in awe at buildings many times taller than the tallest in Havana you can feel his sense of wonderment and, like him, you can't help but smile, not for the sight of skyscrapers, but because you're happy that he's happy.