iMushoo: Hurt Locker wins the award for the Oscar’s Best Picture by Jeric R. Mallari

Hurt Locker wins the award for the Oscar’s Best Picture by Jeric R. Mallari

Posted in | at 6:08 AM

Updated last March 15, 2010, 09:15 pm (Philippine Time)

After many had thought it was really Avatar who got it,”The Hurt Locker” won the top two prizes at Sunday's Academy Awards, taking home the best picture trophy and the best director honor for Kathryn Bigelow.

Bigelow, the producer of the filmbecame the first woman in the 82-year history of the Oscars to earn Hollywood's top prize for filmmakers.

"There's no other way to describe it. It's the moment of a lifetime," Bigelow said. "It's so extraordinary to be in the company of my fellow nominees, such powerful filmmakers, who have inspired me and I have admired, some of them for decades." Bigelow said.

Bigelow's film, which also won best picture, follows the dangerous daily existence of an Army bomb defusal team. It earned six Oscars, including one for Mark Boal's original screenplay, based on his time as a journalist embedded with such a unit.

Among those Bigelow and "The Hurt Locker" beat are ex-husband James Cameron and his sci-fi spectacle, "Avatar.", which many has expected to win the awards.

Cameron was seated right behind Bigelow at the Oscars and joined a standing ovation for her, clapping vigorously and saying, "Yes, yes," after she won.

Either movie would represent a first at the Oscars. James Cameron's "Avatar" would be the only science-fiction film ever to take home the best-picture prize. While war films have done well at the Oscars, Kathryn Bigelow's "The Hurt Locker" would be the first winner centered on the war on terror, a subject that has stirred little interest among movie audiences shell-shocked by news coverage of Iraq and Afghanistan.