The intense action-based Iraq War film took six awards in total, including one for its director Kathryn Bigelow, who went down in the history books as the female director to ever win a Best Directing Academy Award prize.
Some argued the David vs. Goliath story over the blockbuster vs. the longtail award or the spectacle vs. quality, but suffice to say we were very pleased the indie picture dominated the night.
The Academy Branch tried their best to juke the stats this year, raising the Best Picture to 10 nominees, changing the voting system to a preferential ballot that favored populist films, but “Avatar,” the highest grossing film of all time could still not defeat “The Hurt Locker,” ironically, the lowest grossing picture of all the nominees (probably their win was the worst case scenario the Academy had in mind when they flipped the script this year, so we’re kinda feeling a bit of schadenfreude that their cheap grab for ratings backfired). Jeff Bridges, Sandra Bullock, Christoph Waltz and Mo’Nique took their respective acting categories, as predicted by many (including us, we got 18 picks correct), but the biggest surprise of the evening was definitely “Precious” winning Best Adapted Screenplay. Geoffrey Fletcher’s screenplay took the award, which almost everyone assumed was Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner’s “Up In The Air” award to lose. And lose it they did. But otherwise the evening went the way most expected it would.
Besides “Up In The Air” which was totally shut-out six nominations, Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds” was left on the sidelines with only one award — Christoph Waltz winning for Best Supporting actor — despite having eight nominations in total. In fact some heavily favored Tarantino to win Best Original Screenplay, but the award went to Mark Boal’s “The Hurt Locker” script instead.
Here are the full winners. We hope you enjoyed our Oscar liveblogging and kudos to Playlist writer Katie Walsh for holding down the fort on that one. It’s a good recap if you want to look back on how the entire evening went down in detail.
BEST PICTURE
Winner: “The Hurt Locker,” Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal, Nicolas Chartier and Greg Shapiro
“Avatar” James Cameron and Jon Landau, Producers
“The Blind Side,” Gil Netter, Andrew A. Kosove and Broderick Johnson
“District 9” Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham, Producers
“An Education” Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey, Producers
“Inglourious Basterds” Lawrence Bender, Producer
“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Lee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness and Gary Magness, Producers
“A Serious Man” Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, Producers
“Up” Jonas Rivera, Producer
“Up in the Air” Daniel Dubiecki, Ivan Reitman and Jason Reitman, Producers
BEST DIRECTOR
Winner: “The Hurt Locker” Kathryn Bigelow
“Avatar” James Cameron
“Inglourious Basterds” Quentin Tarantino
“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Lee Daniels
“Up in the Air” Jason Reitman
BEST ACTOR
Winner: Jeff Bridges in “Crazy Heart”
George Clooney in “Up in the Air”
Colin Firth in “A Single Man”
Morgan Freeman in “Invictus”
Jeremy Renner in “The Hurt Locker”
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Winner: Christoph Waltz in “Inglourious Basterds”
Matt Damon in “Invictus”
Woody Harrelson in “The Messenger”
Christopher Plummer in “The Last Station”
Stanley Tucci in “The Lovely Bones”
BEST LEADING ACTRESS
Winner: Sandra Bullock in “The Blind Side”
Helen Mirren in “The Last Station”
Carey Mulligan in “An Education”
Gabourey Sidibe in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
Meryl Streep in “Julie & Julia”
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Winner: Mo’Nique in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
Penélope Cruz in “Nine”
Vera Farmiga in “Up in the Air”
Maggie Gyllenhaal in “Crazy Heart”
Anna Kendrick in “Up in the Air”
WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)
Winner: “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher
“District 9” Written by Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell
“An Education” Screenplay by Nick Hornby
“In the Loop” Screenplay by Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche
“Up in the Air” Screenplay by Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner
WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)
Winner: “The Hurt Locker” Written by Mark Boal
“Inglourious Basterds” Written by Quentin Tarantino
“The Messenger” Written by Alessandro Camon & Oren Moverman
“A Serious Man” Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
“Up” Screenplay by Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, Story by Pete Docter, Bob Peterson, Tom McCarthy
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Winner: “Up” Pete Docter
“Coraline” Henry Selick
“Fantastic Mr. Fox” Wes Anderson
“The Princess and the Frog” John Musker and Ron Clements
“The Secret of Kells” Tomm Moore
ART DIRECTION
Winner: “Avatar” Art Direction: Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg; Set Decoration: Kim Sinclair
“The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” Art Direction: Dave Warren and Anastasia Masaro; Set Decoration: Caroline Smith
“Nine” Art Direction: John Myhre; Set Decoration: Gordon Sim
“Sherlock Holmes” Art Direction: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie Spencer
“The Young Victoria” Art Direction: Patrice Vermette; Set Decoration: Maggie Gray
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Winner: “Avatar” Mauro Fiore
“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” Bruno Delbonnel
“The Hurt Locker” Barry Ackroyd
“Inglourious Basterds” Robert Richardson
“The White Ribbon” Christian Berger
COSTUME DESIGN
Winner: “The Young Victoria” Sandy Powell
“Bright Star” Janet Patterson
“Coco before Chanel” Catherine Leterrier
“The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” Monique Prudhomme
“Nine” Colleen Atwood
DOCUMENTARY (FEATURE)
Winner: “The Cove” Nominees to be determined
“Burma VJ” Anders Østergaard and Lise Lense-Møller
“Food, Inc.” Robert Kenner and Elise Pearlstein
“The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers” Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith
“Which Way Home” Rebecca Cammisa
DOCUMENTARY (SHORT SUBJECT)
Winner: “Music by Prudence” Roger Ross Williams and Elinor Burkett
“China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province” Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill
“The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner” Daniel Junge and Henry Ansbacher
“The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant” Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert
“Rabbit à la Berlin” Bartek Konopka and Anna Wydra
FILM EDITING
Winner: “The Hurt Locker” Bob Murawski and Chris Innis
“Avatar” Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua and James Cameron
“District 9” Julian Clarke
“Inglourious Basterds” Sally Menke
“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Joe Klotz
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Winner: “El Secreto de Sus Ojos” – Argentina
“Ajami” – Israel
“The Milk of Sorrow” – Peru
“Un Prophète”- France
“The White Ribbon” – Germany
MAKEUP
Winner: “Star Trek” Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow
“Il Divo” Aldo Signoretti and Vittorio Sodano
“The Young Victoria” Jon Henry Gordon and Jenny Shircore
MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)
Winner: “Up” Michael Giacchino
“Avatar” James Horner
“Fantastic Mr. Fox” Alexandre Desplat
“The Hurt Locker” Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders
“Sherlock Holmes” Hans Zimmer
MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG)
Winner: “The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)” from “Crazy Heart” Music and Lyric by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett“
“Almost There” from “The Princess and the Frog” Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
“Down in New Orleans” from “The Princess and the Frog” Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
“Loin de Paname” from “Paris 36” Music by Reinhardt Wagner Lyric by Frank Thomas
“Take It All” from “Nine” Music and Lyric by Maury Yeston
SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)
Winner: “Logorama” Nicolas Schmerkin
“French Roast” Fabrice O. Joubert
“Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty” Nicky Phelan and Darragh O’Connell
“The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)” Javier Recio Gracia
“A Matter of Loaf and Death” Nick Park
SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION)
Winner: “The New Tenants” Joachim Back and Tivi Magnusson
“The Door” Juanita Wilson and James Flynn
“Instead of Abracadabra” Patrik Eklund and Mathias Fjellström
“Kavi” Gregg Helvey
“Miracle Fish” Luke Doolan and Drew Bailey
SOUND EDITING
Winner: “The Hurt Locker” Paul N.J. Ottosson
“Avatar” Christopher Boyes and Gwendolyn Yates Whittle
“Inglourious Basterds” Wylie Stateman
“Star Trek” Mark Stoeckinger and Alan Rankin
“Up” Michael Silvers and Tom Myers
SOUND MIXING
Winner: “The Hurt Locker” Paul N.J. Ottosson and Ray Beckett
“Avatar” Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson and Tony Johnson
“Inglourious Basterds” Michael Minkler, Tony Lamberti and Mark Ulano
“Star Trek” Anna Behlmer, Andy Nelson and Peter J. Devlin
“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers and Geoffrey Patterson
VISUAL EFFECTS
Winner: “Avatar” Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R. Jones
“District 9” Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros and Matt Aitken
“Star Trek” Roger Guyett, Russell Earl, Paul Kavanagh and Burt Dalton