BEST PICTURE 2010: THE HURT LOCKER

By Stephen Tramontana on March 8th, 2010

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The Best Picture of 2009 is The Hurt Locker.

Although it’s hard to call it an upset, it’s still an upset of sorts. Congratulations are in order to Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal, and their team for taking the top honor of the year.

Many (including Manolith) had predicted that Bigelow would win Best Director, and Cameron’s Science Fiction opus would take the top honor of the year. Especially as there were several factors working against Hurt Locker, chief among them that it was a war movie dealing with Iraq (something that has been box office poison for the last couple of years), and the fact that it is the lowest-grossing Best Picture winner in recent memory.

Many had given Avatar the edge due to factors beyond the production itself. In addition to the amazing production value, the conventional wisdom was that it was a lock due to the fact that it changed the way movies are made and presented to the public. It gave audiences a reason to not wait for DVD or cable, and invest in the theatrical experience of a film.

Finally, the Academy has struggled with ratings for the better part of a decade. Their last ratings win was when Titanic won the top honor, and many hoped that awarding the highest-grossing movie of 2009 would yield the same results, though Martin and Baldwin’s anemic opening probably killed any chance of that.

There will no doubt be some armchair quarterbacking for some time on why Avatar failed to get the award. Some may even feel it was stolen. But the fact remains that the Academy awarded Hurt Locker Best Picture of 2009. Kathryn Bigelow, who just eight years ago found herself in movie-director jail for the failure of K19: The Widowmaker, has a lot to be proud of tonight.

(Photo via: DailyMail.co.uk)