The San Francisco Film Critics Circle has named “The Hurt Locker” as the Best Picture of 2009, while the film’s guiding force, Kathryn Bigelow, took the prize for Best Director.

The San Francisco Film Critics Circle (SFFCC), which includes twenty-six Bay Area film critics, also honored “A Single Man”‘s Colin Firth in the Best Actor category and Meryl Streep as Best Actress for playing Julia Child in “Julie & Julia.” Supporting Actor honors went to Christian McKay as Orson Welles in “Me and Orson Welles” and Mo’Nique as Best Supporting Actress for “Precious.”

In this year of extraordinary animated features, the San Francisco film critics inaugurated their Best Animated Feature award, which went to Henry Selick’s stop-motion adventure “Coraline.”

Best Original Screenplay went to Quentin Tarantino for his WWII fantasia “Inglourious Basterds.” Best Adapted Screenplay was awarded to Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach for their treatment of Roald Dahl’s “Fantastic Mr. Fox” as a stop-motion animated feature. Roger Deakins nabbed the Best Cinematography award for his work on the Coen Brothers’ “A Serious Man.”

The San Francisco critics picked the bittersweet rock doc “Anvil! The Story of Anvil” as the year’s Best Documentary. Best Foreign Language Film went to Roy Andersson’s “You, the Living” (“Du levande”), a quirky Swedish take on the vagaries of life and death. The group gave out a Special Citation to the DIY animated release “Sita Sings the Blues,” by Nina Paley.

The group presented its Marlon Riggs Award, honoring a Bay Area filmmaker or individual who represents courage and innovation in the world of cinema, to two directors: Frazer Bradshaw, for “Everything Strange and New,” a stark Sundance-premiered drama about working-class life in Oakland, CA; and Barry Jenkins, for “Medicine for Melancholy,” a lyrical black-and-white portrait of two African-American twenty-somethings spending a long day and night in San Francisco.

Lastly, the group gave a special In Memoriam acknowledgment to local screenwriter/producer Rose Kaufman, who recently passed away after a valiant battle with cancer.

The full list of winners for the 2009 San Francisco Film Critics Circle Awards follows.

Best Picture
“The Hurt Locker”

Best Director
Kathryn Bigelow for “The Hurt Locker”

Best Original Screenplay
Quentin Tarantino for “Inglourious Basterds”

Best Adapted Screenplay
Wes Anderson & Noah Baumbach for “Fantastic Mr. Fox”

Best Actor
Colin Firth for “A Single Man”

Best Actress
Meryl Streep for “Julie & Julia”

Best Supporting Actor
Christian McKay for “Me & Orson Welles”

Best Supporting Actress
Mo’Nique for “Precious”

Best Foreign Language Film
“You, the Living”

Best Documentary
“Anvil! The Story of Anvil”

Best Cinematography
Roger Deakins for “A Serious Man”

Marlon Riggs Award for courage & vision in the Bay Area film community
Frazer Bradshaw, filmmaker, in recognition of “Everything Strange and New”

Marlon Riggs Award for courage & vision in the Bay Area film community
Barry Jenkins, filmmaker, in recognition of “Medicine for Melancholy”

Special Citation
“Sita Sings the Blues” by Nina Paley

In Memoriam acknowledgement
Rose Kaufman