Assaulted with ceaseless buzz about the Academy Awards, I can’t help wishing that a well-wrought typeface could attract as much attention as a 90-minute film. Various type blogs and font foundries released their own best-of lists at the end of 2009. I sifted through them and cast my own votes. Each of the selections presented here comes from a published list of the year’s top typefaces. Most of these lists reflect the personal tastes of the editor, while some are based on a font company’s own sales figures.

The winners include:

• Best Typeface: GeoGrotesque, by Eduardo Manso, Em Type
• Best Actor: Mr Eaves, by Zuzana Licko, Emigre
• Best Actress: Liza Pro, by Underware
• Best Sans: Alright Sans, by Jackson Cavanaugh, Okay Type
• Best Serif: Calluna, by Jos Buivenga
• Best Superfamily: Trilogy, by Jeremy Tankard, Jeremy Tankard Typography
• Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Giorgio Sans, by Christian Schwartz
• Best Revival: Burgundica, by Gerrit Noordzij, The Enschedé Type Foundry
• Best Foreign Language Font: Nara, by Andrej Krátky with Nikola Djurek and Peter Bilak, Typotheque
• Best Visual Effects: Klimax, by Ondrej Jób, Typotheque
• Best Free Font: League Gothic, by the League of Moveable Type; revival of Morris Fuller Benton’s Alternate Gothic No.1
• Lifetime Achievement: Wim Crouwel

Quite the impressive list.  Of these I am  particularly fond of Calluna and Alright Sans.