Academy Awards Recap: Huge Night for 'Hurt Locker'

As was expected in most circles, The Hurt Locker took the two top Academy Awards, but when it also won Best Original Screenplay (and there was some precedent for that), it also equaled what the mighty Avatar was able to garner for the entire evening. The difference is, Avatar only won technical awards...oh, and $2.5 billion. Still, Hurt Locker doubled Avatar in the final accounting and was the runaway winner of the night. There were only a couple major surprises, and the screenplay categories were where you'd find them. Up in the Air was an all-around loser, which was not at all how I saw it going. The adapted screenplay was the safe bet, but it lost to Precious. One surprise to me was that the telecast reverted to "And the winner is" instead of "And the Oscar goes to." Thank goodness. What, if anything, stood out to you? To me, it's the impression that there's not a rejection of Avatar or sci-fi or technology, but that the majority of voters still warm up to great storytelling, no matter how simple. Since the vast majority of these voters are actors, they're also looking for performances that they connect with, and Avatar was one of three Best Picture nominees without an acting nomination, and one of two without a writing nomination. Those factoids shouldn't go overlooked in the post-mortem. Here are the winners: Best Picture
The Hurt Locker Best Director
Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker Best Actress
Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side Best Actor
Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart Best Supporting Actress
Mo’nique, Precious Best Supporting Actor
Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds Best Animated Film
Up Best Original Screenplay
The Hurt Locker Best Adapted Screenplay
Precious Best Foreign Language Film
The Secret in Their Eyes Best Documentary
The Cove
Best Art Direction
Avatar Best Cinematography
Avatar Best Costume Design
The Young Victoria Best Film Editing
The Hurt Locker
Best Makeup
Star Trek Best Music (Original Score)
Up Best Music (Original Song)
"The Weary Kind" from Crazy Heart Best Sound Editing
The Hurt Locker Best Sound Mixing
The Hurt Locker
Best Visual Effects
Avatar
Best Documentary Short
Music by Prudence Best Short Film (Animated)
Logorama
Best Short Film (Live Action)
The New Tenants All told, The Hurt Locker collected six awards, which is probably one or two more than most people thought. The screenplay is not out of left field and neither is sound editing, but when it won both, you knew how the rest of the night would likely play out. For James Cameron, Avatar won tech awards but didn't even dominate there. Its three awards matched Hurt Locker in the sound and editing categories. Precious took two awards, as did Crazy Heart. Not that you care, but I missed seven on my Oscar pool: Both screenplay categories, live action and documentary short, foreign language film, cinematography, and sound editing. Not a good night for me on that front. However, I have been saying Hurt Locker would win Best Picture for months, so that makes me feel better.

Comments

[Vince]

I thought I did poorly, but apparently I only missed six. A couple years back I missed 10 of them, which was an embarrassment. I totally called El Secreto taking the Best Foreign Language Film however, so I'm going to toot my own horn on that one.

Otherwise, no real surprises here except for the screenplay wins, and even then I wasn't completely shocked about either winner. Like I said in the post about Best Adapted Screenplay, it's a shame that Jason Reitman's best film is the one to go home empty-handed this year.

Also, I just want to make sure: The Hurt Locker is the lowest grossing, least attended (in theaters) Best Picture winner ever right? It's been re-released in theaters at least twice since its first run in late July, and it's only mustered up $14.7 million in ticket sales here in the States. The win will bode well for DVD sales I'm sure.

[Get The Big Picture]

I don't know about ever, but certainly in the blockbuster era, yes.

[anybody]

I also feel for Jason Reitman but I think he's going to have many more opportunities for Oscar gold in the future, for both his writing and directing. The guys three for three in my book (and yes, his least inspired is the only one to walk away with a statue, it sitting on Diablo Cody's mantle somewhere).

I thought Tarantino had it locked and was pretty shocked to see the best original screenplay nod go to Mark Boal (and although I respect The Hurt Locker's script and scribe I can't help but be disappointed). That first scene in IB (plus so much more) should have been enough to take it home. Similar disappointment last year when In Bruges and Martin McDonagh lost to Dustin Lance Black's Milk.

Lastly... where's Billy Crystal? If not him how about we let Tina Fey have a go next year?

[SEAN]

I completely echo anybody & Vince, with their opinions on the screenplay awards fronts....

I mean I thought QT deserved it & I thought Up in the Air did as well, but obviously it didnt turn out that way....

Oh & of course Bullock won, but she was the worst performance out of them all, but her speech was lovely & she actually did say she maybe didn't deserve it....very classy of her she has a really cool personality but Oscar gold should have went to Meryl/Carey/Helen

[J.Bradley]

"The Hurt Locker" win is a great turnaround for the "Iraq movies" or "post 9/11" movie trend that happened a few years ago. The movies explore and audiences ignore the biggest issue dominating this era of history and instead turn - so overwhelmingly it seems - to escapist fare. It'll be interesting to see what effect this win might have on "The Green Zone" coming out this week.

[Adam]

Me and my wife were both surprised that The Hurt Locker won. We watched it Friday night and though it was good but felt Avatar was a more entertaining film. Maybe I missed something in The Hurt Locker that made it the Best Picture.

[Jeremy]

Did anyone notice that the producer for The Cove was Fisher Stevens from Short Circuit? That guy has an Oscar now! Crazy! Guttenberg is probably pissed...

[Brandon]

I don't have a problem with Hurt Locker winning based on acting and story alone, I do have a problem with the fact that Hurt locker will not be a trend setting movie, unless you claim that its acceptable for a movie to be an army commercial like the end of the hurt locker felt like and I had no problem with it myself. Avatar, for everything that was ensembled together to make it a movie was fantastic. Look at the trend is has set as well. All these movies are switching to 3-D, because of Avatar. Would all these movies be switching to 3-D if it were not for the great movie Avatar was? It may not be the best movie, if hurt locker was filmed in 3-D just like Avatar was, I would say hands down it is the winner. This movie however has changed the way we will see most action, sci-fi, and horror films forever. That is trend setting and for that it deserves better recognition for changing its industry.