"UP" & "The Hurt Locker" win "The Golden Tomato" Award!

Award season has begun!

LOS ANGELES – An animated adventure about a widower who sails away in a house lifted by a bouquet of balloons and an up-close look at a bomb-squad unit in Iraq were the top critical favorites of 2009. Now "Up" and "The Hurt Locker" are top winners at the Golden Tomato Awards.

The awards honor the best-reviewed films of the year as determined by the Web site RottenTomatoes.com, which compiles reviews from critics to measure the percentage of favorable critiques.

Pixar's "Up" collected positive reviews from 98 percent of critics, earning it the Golden Tomato for a film in wide release. "The Hurt Locker" was the best-reviewed limited release film, with 97 percent of critics recommending it.

"Up" is the sixth Pixar film to rank above all others. "WALL-E" won the Golden Tomato in 2008 and "Ratatouille" took the title in 2007.

"Every year since we started doing this award, if they've got a movie, they win," said Rotten Tomatoes Editor-in-Chief Matt Atchity. "They just consistently turn out really good quality movies."

While there's no direct relationship between the Golden Tomatoes and the Academy Awards, Atchity says "Up" and "The Hurt Locker" are both likely to earn Oscar attention this year.

"The Golden Tomato winners don't necessarily win the Oscar but they usually do show up in the nominees," he said, adding that he expects both to earn best-picture nominations.

The Moldy Tomato Award, for the year's worst-reviewed film, went to "Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li." Only four percent of critics gave it a positive review.

Let's see what happens on the Golden Globes and the Oscars!