Director Kathryn Bigelow and her war drama The Hurt Locker have triumphed at the 82nd Academy Awards.
After a prolonged Clash Of The Titans -style face-off with Avatar , The Hurt Locker emerged victorious, claiming Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay awards, along with three other prizes.
Bigelow seemed genuinely surprised to have won Best Director, giving a heartfelt speech that thanked “the women and men in the military who risk their lives on a daily basis in Iraq and Afghanistan and around the world. May they come home safe.”
Avatar didn’t go home empty handed, but was rightly celebrated mostly for its technical achievements rather than its contributions to any of the bigger award categories.
Cameron’s film received awards for Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography and Best Visual Effects. Meanwhile, Star Trek earned itself the Best Make-Up award.
The rest of the evening played out pretty much as expected, with an emotional Jeff Bridges accepting the Best Actor gong (for Crazy Heart ) and thanking his parents for helping him get into such a “groovy profession”.
Sandra Bullock gave a suitably funny and frank acceptance speech as she picked up the Best Actress award for her performance in The Blind Side , joking, “Did I really earn this or did I just wear you all down?”
Meanwhile, Christoph Waltz won the Best Supporting Actor award for his turn in Inglourious Basterds , and Mo’Nique received a standing ovation as she accepted the Best Supporting Actress prize for her riveting performance in Precious .
Pixar’s Up nabbed the Best Animation and Best Score prizes, while the biggest surprise of the night came when El Secreto de Sus Ojos beat both A Prophet and The White Ribbon to the Best Foreign Film award.
For the rest of the wins and losses, check out the breakdown below.
BEST PICTURE
Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air
BEST DIRECTOR
James Cameron, Avatar
Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds
Lee Daniels, Precious
Jason Reitman, Up in the Air
BEST ACTOR
Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
George Clooney, Up in the Air
Colin Firth, A Single Man
Morgan Freeman, Invictus
Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker
BEST ACTRESS
Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
Helen Mirren, The Last Station
Carey Mulligan, An Education
Gabourey Sidibe, Precious
Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Matt Damon, Invictus
Woody Harrelson, The Messenger
Christopher Plummer, The Last Station
Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Penelope Cruz, Nine
Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
Maggie Gyllenhaal, Crazy Heart
Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
Mo’Nique, Precious
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
The Messenger
A Serious Man
Up
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
District 9
An Education
In the Loop
Precious
Up in the Air
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Coraline
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Princess and the Frog
The Secret of Kells
Up
BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FEATURE
Ajami
El Secreto de Sus Ojos
The Milk of Sorrow
Un Prophete
The White Ribbon
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Burma VJ
The Cove
Food, Inc.
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
Which Way Home
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province
The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner
The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant
Music by Prudence
Rabbit a la Berlin
BEST LIVE-ACTION SHORT
The Door
Instead of Abracadabra
Kavi
Miracle Fish
The New Tenants
BEST ANIMATED SHORT
French Roast
Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty
The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)
Logorama
A Matter of Loaf and Death
BEST SCORE
Avatar
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Hurt Locker
Sherlock Holmes
Up
BEST SONG
“Almost There” from The Princess and the Frog
“Down in New Orleand” from The Princess and the Frog
“Loin de Paname” from Paris 36
“Take It All” from Nine
“The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)” from Crazy Heart
BEST SOUND EDITING
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Up
BEST SOUND MIXING
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
BEST ART DIRECTION
Avatar
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Nine
Sherlock Holmes
The Young Victoria
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Avatar
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
The White Ribbon
BEST MAKE-UP
Il Divo
Star Trek
The Young Victoria
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Bright Star
Coco before Chanel
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Nine
The Young Victoria
BEST FILM EDITING
Avatar
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Avatar
District 9
Star Trek
All in, the 2010 Oscars went down without a hitch: everybody won where they were expected and (importantly) deserved, and there were no big upsets on the night (apart from that awful “This Oscar sees you” bit when Avatar got Best art Direction).
Where do all the winners go from here? Watch this space...
Happy with the outcome?
