“The Hurt Locker” beats the odds to win Best Film

Not only was “The Hurt Locker” the lowest grossing film of all time up against the highest grossing film of all time – sci-fi epic “Avatar” – for the Best Film award, but director Kathryn Bigelow was up against Hollywood tycoon and ex-husband James Cameroon. Bigelow was only the fourth women in Academy Award history to be nominated for Best Film– and the first ever to win the award for best director.

Her film, hailed as a near-perfect masterpiece follows the story of an army bomb-removal team in Iraq with Jeremy Renner in the lead role. It took away a total of six Oscars at the 82nd Academy Awards, which was surprising given the statistics: the film was aired on only 535 movie theatres around the world; it cost a mere US$11 million to make (against US$230 million of “Avatar”), it was directed by a woman (not a favourite at the Academy for directors) and received much criticism from the media and military who questioned the realism of the film.

Even producer Nicolas Chartier thought he needed to up the stakes for “The Hurt Locker” by emailing Academy members urging them to vote for his film– an act that saw him banned from the Academy Awards.

Against those odds, the film claimed honours and awards from the Producers Guild, BAFTA, Broadcast Film Critics, The National Society of Film Critics as well as the Academy Awards for Best Film, Best Directing, Best Film Editing, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing and Best Original Screenplay.

Not only a first for women in the directing category, this year also saw first timers Sandra Bullock and Jeff Bridges take home Academy Awards, for Best Actress for her role in “The Blind Side” and Best Actor for “Crazy Heart”.

The Hurt Locker is now available for airing in South Africa on Blu-ray and DVD from WantItAll.