Katherine Bigelow became the first woman in the 82 year history of the Academy Awards last night earning the Best Director award, winning for her Iraq war drama The Hurt Locker. It was the culmination of an evening of dominance for the film, which won a total of six awards in the nine categories it was nominated in. In addition to Best Director, The Hurt Locker also won Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing.
With its six wins, The Hurt Locker effectively shut out director James Cameron’s science-fiction blockbuster Avatar, which had also received nine nominations including Best Director and Picture. However, it would only win awards for Best Cinematography and Visual Effects. Many Oscar watchers were of the opinion that Avatar would beat out Hurt Locker for Best Picture on the strength of the technical achievements Cameron developed in order to make the film.
But outside of the Avatar shutout, the evening contained very few surprises. The awards show started off with Christoph Waltz winning Best Supporting Actor for his work as a cunning Nazi officer in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds. It would be that film’s only win despite eight nominations including Best Original Screenplay, Best Director and Best Picture. Frontrunners Jeff Bridges, Sandra Bullock and Mo’Nique all won their respective acting categories as well.
The complete list of winners is as follows –
Actor in a Leading Role – Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart
Actor in a Supporting Role – Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds
Actress in a Leading Role – Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side
Actress in a Supporting Role – Mo’Nique in Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire
Animated Feature Film – Up – Pete Docter
Art Direction – Avatar – Art Direction: Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg; Set Decoration: Kim Sinclair
Cinematography – Avatar – Mauro Fiore
Costume Design – The Young Victoria – Sandy Powell
Directing – The Hurt Locker – Kathryn Bigelow
Documentary (Feature) – The Cove – Nominees to be determined
Documentary (Short Subject) – Music by Prudence – Roger Ross Williams and Elinor Burkett
Film Editing – The Hurt Locker – Bob Murawski and Chris Innis
Foreign Language Film – El Secreto de Sus Ojos – Argentina
Makeup – Star Trek – Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow
Music (Original Score) – Up – Michael Giacchino
Music (Original Song) – “The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)” from Crazy Heart, Music and Lyric by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett
Best Picture – The Hurt Locker
Short Film (Animated) – Logorama – Nicolas Schmerkin
Short Film (Live Action) – The New Tenants – Joachim Back and Tivi Magnusson
Sound Editing – The Hurt Locker – Paul N.J. Ottosson
Sound Mixing – The Hurt Locker – Paul N.J. Ottosson and Ray Beckett
Visual Effects – Avatar – Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R. Jones
Writing (Adapted Screenplay) – Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire – Screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher
Writing (Original Screenplay) – The Hurt Locker – Written by Mark Boal
