War drama director is first woman to win Oscar

Iraq war drama “The Hurt Locker” dominated the 82nd Academy Awards on Sunday night (local time), scooping six Oscars including best picture on a historic night in Hollywood.

The nerve-jangling movie about a U.S. Army bomb disposal squad in Baghdad blew away its rivals, with filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow becoming the first woman ever to win the Oscar for best director.

“This really is, there’s no other way to describe it, the moment of a lifetime,” said Bigelow, only the fourth woman ever to be nominated for the best director award.

“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.”

The top acting honors went to Hollywood veterans Jeff Bridges for his performance as an alcoholic country singer in “Crazy Heart” and Sandra Bullock, for her role 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,” the $500 million science-fiction epic directed by her ex-husband James Cameron.

Cameron’s phenomenally successful blockbuster - the highest-grossing film in history with more than $2.5 billion in earnings - finished the night with three Oscars, mostly in technical categories.

The face-off between Bigelow and Cameron’s films had been billed as the “Battle of the Exes,” but the two filmmakers smiled and joked throughout the evening as they sat just a few feet apart throughout the show.

The acting awards largely followed the form-book, with Bridges finally landing an Oscar after four previous unsuccessful nominations.

Bridges thanked his late parents in an acceptance speech, which came 39 years after his first Oscar nomination.

Bullock, meanwhile, completed a uniquely dubious double with her best actress award, which came just 24 hours after she was crowned worst actress at the Razzies, the annual eve-of-Oscars parody.

“Did I really earn this or did I just wear you all down?” said Bullock, whose Oscar-winning role was based on the true story of Leigh Anne Tuohy, who took in homeless black teenager Michael Oher and helped set him on the road to an American football career.

AFP