Top Winners of the 82nd Annual Academy Awards (Oscars 2010)

So it was the night for the small movie, The Hurt Locker, beat expected winner Avatar not only for Best Movie but for Best Director. Kathryn Bigelow brought home two Oscars and made it a night of firsts; she is the first woman director to have won an Oscar for Best Director as well as for Best Picture. Sandra Bullock, best known for light-hearted romantic comedies grasped the Oscar for her role as the feisty mom in The Blind Side. Jeff Bridges, continued the excellence of his theatrical family, by winning the Oscar for his role in Crazy Heart. Mo'Nique didn't surprise anyone by winning the Oscar for her gutsy role as a dysfunctional mother in the independent film, Precious. Christoph Waltz won everyone over and took the Oscar for his role as a Jew-hunting Nazi.

Let's take a look at the box office grosses of the top 5 winners and compare it against Avatar which is now the highest grossing movie in history. As of March 7, 2010, the grosses are as follows:

• Avatar: $720,189,000

• Crazy Heart: $29,569,000

• Inglourious Basterds: $120,540,719

• The Blind Side: $250,480,000

• The Hurt Locker: $14,700,000

• Precious: $47,410,000

The Hurt Locker was the lowest grossing film out of the movie winners for the top six awards but took six Academy Awards out of the nine nominations it was given. In addition to Best Picture and Best Director, it also won Best Original Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Sound, and Best Sound Editing. Obviously, Avatar was a big winner in the box office but only managed to win 3 Oscars out of the nine nominations it garnered; Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, and Best Visual Effects. The Academy has once again proved that the Oscar doesn't always go to the highest grossing movie. I was glad to see though, that Up, one of my favorite movies of the year won two Oscars for Best Animated Feature and Best Score.

Watching the Oscars, as everyone knows, is a marathon, not a sprint. One of the reason I wanted to watch it this year was to listen to the speeches of the winners. I thought Pete Docter who won for Up as Best Animated Feature was so young-at-heart happy at winning that I was glad that here was a nice family man in Hollywood who won an Oscar for his heart-warming animation. I thought Jeff Bridges' triumphant speech and mention of his parents (since he comes from a great acting family, his father being Lloyd Bridges, mother is Dorothy Bridges and brother, Beau Bridges) showed that he finally feels that he made a worthy contribution to his familial heritage. Sandra Bullock's funny speech, as reflects her personality, was also touching when she talked about her mother and thanked all the mothers regardless of how their children came to them. I've always liked Sandra Bullock and have always known her to be a hard-working actress and it was gratifying to see her stretch into serious roles and even more so, to be recognized as a serious actor by winning for Best Actress. Kathryn Bigelow was clearly in shock at winning for Best Director for The Hurt Locker and still wasn't over it when she won again for Best Picture.

All in all, it was one of the better Oscar Award programs that have been broadcast. Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin did a good job of keeping the pace going and being witty and keeping your attention up. Not too may award winners went over their time and the show ran only five minutes past midnight.

Originally published March 7, 2010