Oscars 2010: All The Winners
The Oscars have much more than just an artistic and commercial significance. They often
reflect the mood and cultural aspirations of the American people and the trends are interesting. Right now, America is in a heightened military phase of the long-running war on error. The global recession shows signs of easing, but the events that caused it – corporate greed, consumer avarice and a nation facing the hardest times, in terms of jobs and earnings, since the post-war austerity years. Barack Obama’s presidency has lost its buoyancy and much of its popular appeal, and as you look the Oscar winners you see that more cautious, anxious mood is very strongly reflected in the films that won. I interpret this as America symbolically “circling the wagons” and celebrating craft and talent as it confronts the future.
Nowhere was that reflected more clearly than in the counterbalance of James Cameron and his ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow, going into the Oscar race, each with nine nominations. “The Hurt Locker” collected six of those Oscars, including the big ones – Best Film, Best Director, Best Script – leaving Cameron to pick up his technical awards for “Avatar”. Money did not enter into it. Bigelow’s film was not funded in America, but in France. At the box-office the returns for “The Hurt Locker” were, at best, modest. “Avatar” is the biggest money-earner in the history of Hollywood, but it did not capture the Oscars voters.
One film was about a real, passionate and painful reflection of what Americans must deal with daily on the battlefields of Iraq. The other was a vivid fantasy with the army portrayed as sadistic, greedy military types who were out to rape and pillage a peaceful nation and destroy the structure of its spiritual beliefs. The two films offered two versions of America’s value system and its aspirations, and the way the wards went, it was obvious what the American film community wanted to salute and endorse.
The fact that Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win a Best Director Oscar was backed up by a two other films that had powerful feminist themes. “Precious” was the story of a young woman trapped into a humiliating ad brutal life by her greedy, vengeful mother and she is helped by women who help her to change her life. By the end of the film the character Precious is a woman who has found her way to empowerment and she is able to reclaim her lost children and become what she always wanted to be – a mother to her children. That film won the Best Supporting Actress award for Mo’Nique.
The same is true of “The Blind Side” for which Sandra Bullock won the Best Actress Oscar. Once again a wealthy white woman helps to empower an impoverished abuse young black man and changes his life. The theme of redemption and second chances also runs powerfully through “Crazy Heart” with Jeff Bridges catching the Best Actor after four previous nominations and the film’s theme song winning the Best Song Oscar. This is Hollywood honouring its own, the hardworking, jobbing actors who tell inspiring American stories. Even the Best Animated Film Oscar for “Up”, expressed that buoyant theme. It’s a story of an old man, along and lost in house that will soon be broken down to make way for office and shopping malls. In an act of defiance he, with help of a young Asian boy, who also has problems at home, he ties thousands of balloons to his house and flies up to a new world of adventure and purpose. As I said, this is America “circling the wagons” celebrating its crafts and it’s artists, and above all, focusing on reality rather than glamorous, escapist media hype that so often hi-jacks the art of film.
"The Hurt Locker" has been named Best Picture at the 2010 Academy Awards and was the big winner on the night winning six of the nine awards it was nominated for.
Kathryn Bigelow won the Oscar for Best Director, and became the first woman ever to win the Best Director Oscar.
Her film about elite bomb disposal experts in Iraq emerged as the big winner at the 82nd Academy Awards. "The Hurt Locker" also picked up awards for Best Original Screenplay, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, and Best Film Editing.
"The Hurt Locker" writer Mark Boal took the gong for Best Original Screenplay, and dedicated his award "to the troops, the 115,000 who are still in Iraq, the 120,000 in Afghanistan and the more than 30,000 wounded and 4,000 who have not made it home" and to his father who died a month ago.
Sandra Bullock won the Oscar for Best Leading Actress for her role in "The Blind Side" at the 82nd Academy Awards in Hollywood. It was the first nomination and award for Bullock at the Academy Awards, beating out Helen Mirren and Meryl Streep.
Jeff Bridges won the Oscar for Best Leading Actor for his role in "Crazy Heart"
Mo’Nique in "Precious: Based on the Novel ’Push’ by Sapphire" has won the Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role at the 82nd Academy Awards in Hollywood.
Christoph Waltz took the Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his part in "Inglourious Basterds"
James Cameron’s "Avatar" picked up three Oscars for Best Visual Effects, Best Art Direction and Best Cinematography.
The Weta Digital team of Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R. Jones won Best Visual Effects on Avatar while the Art Direction award went to Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg and Mauro Fiore took the Oscar for Cinematography
"The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)" with music and lyrics by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett won the Oscar for Best Original Song.
"The Secret in Their Eyes" from Argentina won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film
"The Young Victoria" designer Sandy Powell won the gong for Best Costume Design.
Pete Docter’s "Up" took the Best Animated Feature Film. Accepting the award, Docter said "Boy, never did I dream that making a flip book out of my third grade math book would lead to this."