The Hurt Locker sidelines Avatar on Oscar night
08 Mar 2010
Los Angeles: ''Well, the time has come,'' said diva Barbara Streisand and announced the award for Best Director for Katherine Bigelow, for her work on the film, ''The Hurt Locker.'' Bigelow became the first woman director in the history of the Oscars to win the coveted golden statuette.
In the process, Bigelow with ''The Hurt Locker'' also delivered a crushing blow to the expectations of ex-husband James Cameron, director of the awesome commercial success ''Avatar,'' whose film was in the running with nine nominations of its own. Bigelow's The Hurt Locker walked away with six Oscars and left a meagre three, all technical, for Avatar to pick up.
This is a complete reversal of box office results, with Avatar the highest grossing movie ever with $2 billion plus and The Hurt Locker a box-office wimp, with $21 million in global ticket sales.
Bigelow was only the fourth woman ever nominated for a best director Oscar in the Academy Awards' 82-year history after previous Sofia Coppola, Jane Campion and Lina Wertmuller.
The Hurt Locker is a movie about the Iraq war and deals with the trials and tribulations of a United States Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team as they contend with defusing bombs, the threat of insurgency and the tensions that develop among them.
The film had already swept the 2010 BAFTA Awards, and The New York Times called it "the year's most critically acclaimed American film".