MUMBAI: The Hurt Locker earned three of The National Society Of Film Critics‘ top 2009 honours when it claimed the 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 award 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 topped 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 won a closely-contested best actor contest bagging 30 votes above 24 for Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart and 15 for Nicolas Cage for Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans.

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

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.