So the 82nd Academy Awards were held last night with Avatar (2009) as the favourite for most awards, nominated for no less than nine awards including Best Picture and Best Director, two of the most prestigious awards in film. However, it wasn't so predictable!
The big winners of the night were guys from The Hurt Locker (2008): a film showing the exploits of a bomb squad in the US Army stationed in Iraq. The film starred a relatively unknown cast made up of mostly American TV and Broadway actors (including Lost star Evangeline Lilly!) and was directed by James Cameron's ex-wife, Kathryn Bigelow who became the first woman to win the Oscar for Best Director. In fact, The Hurt Locker (released in 2008 but didn't qualify for the 2009 Oscars) was nominated for nine Oscars, similar to Avatar, and won six of them: Best Film, Director and Screenplay and Best Sound Editing and Mixing and Best Film Editing. Came out of nowhere it seemed to me but a film showing the US Army in all its glory couldn't not win in Hollywood really!
Avatar itself won just three awards (which it really quite good!) with Best Art Direction, Cinematography and inevitably, Best Visual Effects. One big mention, in my interest, to the winner of Best Supporting Actor, Christoph Waltz! In my previous review of Inglorious Basterds (2009) I mentioned his great performance and he has been duly credited for it!
I've not seen The Hurt Locker so after this haul of awards, I think it deserves to be added to my DVD collection! Will let you know what I think to it in due time...
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