The Hurt Locker rules on historic Oscars night
Iraq war drama The Hurt Locker blew away box office king Avatar to
take six Oscars, with Kathryn Bigelow becoming the first woman to win
the best director award on a historic Hollywood night.
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Kathryn Bigelow |
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Sandra Bullock |
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eff Bridges |
The nerve-jangling movie about a US Army bomb disposal squad in
Baghdad also took best picture and best screenplay while Avatar , made
by Bigelow's ex-husband James Cameron, won just three Oscars at Sunday's
awards.
"This really is, there's no other way to describe it, the moment of a
lifetime," said Bigelow, only the fourth woman to be nominated for best
director by Academy voters.
"I'd like to dedicate this to the women and men in the military who
risk their lives in a daily basis in Iraq and Afghanistan and around the
world," Bigelow added. "May they come home safe."
Top acting honors went to Hollywood veterans Jeff Bridges for his
performance as an alcoholic country singer in Crazy Heart and Sandra
Bullock as a feisty housewife in the sports drama The Blind Side.
It was a perfectly scripted night at the Kodak Theater for Bigelow,
whose low-budget film had been locked in a duel with Avatar and Cameron,
whose 500-million-dollar science-fiction epic has become the
highest-grossing film in history with more than 2.5 billion dollars in
earnings. Avatar mainly won its Oscars in technical categories.
The face-off had been billed as the 'Battle of the Exes' but Bigelow
and Cameron smiled and joked throughout the evening as they sat just a
few feet apart.
Bridges finally landed an Oscar after four previous nominations. He
thanked his late parents in an acceptance speech which came 39 years
after his first nomination.
"Thank you mum and dad for turning me on to such a groovy
profession," he said.
Bullock completed a uniquely dubious double with her best actress
award, which came 24 hours after she was crowned worst actress at the
Razzies, the annual Oscars parody.
"Did I really earn this or did I just wear you all down?" said
Bullock, whose role was based on the true story of Leigh Anne Tuohy, who
took on a homeless black teenager and helped set him on the road to an
American football career. AFP |
