"The Hurt Locker" Wins Big At The Oscars

It wasn’t exactly a night of surprises, but it was still a satisfying one for many reasons. Yes, the 2010 Oscars have been handed out and it was definitely The Hurt Locker’s time to shine, as the film scooped six awards, including Original Screenplay, Best Picture and Best Director, which crowned Kathryn Bigelow as the first female Oscar winner in the category.

Bigelow seemed surprised at the win and took a moment to thank her collaborators before dedicating the award to “the women and men in the military who risk their lives on a daily basis in Iraq and Afghanistan and around the world. And may they come home safe. Thank you.” She was soon shoved back on stage to accept another gong with the film scooping Best Picture.

Avatar wasn’t entirely locked out, though it was restricted to the technical categories, winning for Visual Effects, Cinematography and Art Direction. In other awards news, Star Trek got an Oscar for its makeup.

Acting wise, the dominoes fell as expected. Supporting Actor went to Christoph Waltz for Inglourious Basterds. And yes, he made a “bingo” reference. He was classy and quirky as usual.

Supporting Actress was Precious’ Mo’Nique, who offered a teary, but heartfelt speech and threw out the supposed new Academy “rules” about leaving the long list of thanks for the Thank You Cam they have backstage.

That lack of surprise continued over into Best Actor And Actress, with Crazy Heart's Jeff Bridges and The Blind Side's Sandra Bullock making the expected walk to the stage.

Bridges was emotional and enthusiastic, referencing his parents (“Thank you, mom and dad, for turning me on to such a groovy profession. Oh, my dad and my mom, they loved show biz so much. I remember my mom, getting all of us kids to entertain at her parties. You know, my dad sitting me on his bed and teaching me all of the basics of acting for a role in Sea Hunt…”) and his wife of 33 years, surely an achievement in Hollywood worth recognising.

Bullock, meanwhile, was the grand slam of speeches – funny, tear jerking and grateful. (“Did I really earn this or did I just wear you all down? I would like to thank the Academy for allowing me in the last month to have the most incredible ride with rooms full of artists that I see tonight and that I've worked with before and I hope to work with in the future, who inspire me and blaze trails for us.”) And she even managed to get in a good crack about “my lover Meryl” at the end, a nod to their joke kiss at an previous awards event. Classy lady.

Pixar did well, with Up the anointed winner of Animated Feature and a lovely speech from Original Score winner Michael Giacchino, who encouraged kids to follow their dreams: “I know there are kids out there that don't have that support system so if you're out there and you're listening, listen to me: If you want to be creative, get out there and do it. It's not a waste of time. Do it.”

Dolphin slaughter expose The Cove took Documentary, with the producers seeming to break academy rules about no promotion on the podium with their text message petition sign. Oh, and director Louie Psihoyos' time to talk was taken over by producer Fisher Stevens. Bet Johnny Five felt the same way about Short Circuit 2…

And it wasn’t just the documentary winner who suffered on stage. Some, particularly the Shorts category winners ironically got the Get Off The Stage music long before they’d finished speaking and poor Documentary Short winner Roger Ross Williams (Music By Prudence) got his speech hijacked by producer Elinor Burkett.

If there was a big surprise at all (besides, possibly Hurt Locker’s Picture scoop), it was Argentina’s El Secreto de Sus Ojos (The Secret Of Their Eyes) nabbing Foreign Film over favourites The White Ribbon and A Prophet.

The show itself featured, among other things, Big Liar Neil Patrick Harris, who’d tweeted that he wouldn’t be appearing (he later claimed he’d only said “in a duet” – sneaky!) in a great opening number and the Best Actor/Actress Nominees standing together at the start, as if the awards were to be decided by a Clap-O-Meter, while the tribute to John Hughes was class personified, even if it did make you wish you were watching his films all over again. Ben Stiller cracked up the audience in full Na’vi make-up, while the long overlooked horror genre got its due… in a montage. We also enjoyed Tina Fey and Robert Downey Jr’s bickering about writers vs. actors (the high point was Downey Jr’s description of keyboard-bashers as “sickly mole people”).

So how did the combo of Awec Bawwwin (whose name we really can only say in the style of Team America’s Kim Jong Il these days) and Steve Martin do as hosts? A little mixed – they opened with a joint joke-fest that took pot shots at themselves and others (particularly George Clooney and Meryl Streep) and some jokes worked, with just one or two falling a little flat, a funny Paranormal Activity skit and some great interaction.

We predict the show itself will get equally divided reviews. It ran more than 30 minutes long (leading to a severely rushed final portion), missed Farrah Fawcett from the In Memoriam segment and could definitely have done without the bloody interpretive dancers for the Original Score.

/Empire Online/