LOS ANGELESMarch 8, (Agencies): The Iraq War drama “The Hurt Locker” won best picture and five other prizes at the Academy Awards, including best director for Kathryn Bigelow, the first woman ever to earn Hollywood’s top prize for filmmakers.
First-time winners took all four acting prizes Sunday: Sandra Bullock as best actress for “The Blind Side”; Jeff Bridges as best actor for “Crazy Heart”; Mo’Nique as supporting actress for “Precious”; and Austria’s Christoph Waltz as supporting actor for “Inglourious Basterds.”
Bigelow is 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.”

Among those Bigelow and “The Hurt Locker” beat are ex-husband James Cameron and his sci-fi spectacle “Avatar.” Bigelow and Cameron were married from 1989-91.
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.
Argentina’s “The Secret in Their Eyes” pulled off a surprise win for foreign-language film over higher-profile entries that included Germany’s “The White Ribbon” and France’s “A Prophet.”
“The Cove,” an investigation into grisly dolphin-fishing operations in Japan, was picked as best documentary.
The Oscar marks a career peak for Bridges, a beloved Hollywood veteran who had been nominated four times in the previous 38 years without winning. Bridges, who played a boozy country singer trying to clean up his act, held his Oscar aloft and thanked his late parents, actor Lloyd Bridges and poet Dorothy Bridges.
“Thank you, Mom and Dad, for turning me on to such a groovy profession,” said Bridges, recalling how his mother would get her children to entertain at parties and his father would sit on the bed teaching him the basics of acting for an early part he landed on his dad’s TV show “Sea Hunt.”
Darling
“I feel an extension of them. This is honoring them as much as it is me,” Bridges said.
Bullock, an industry darling who had never before been nominated, won for her role as a real-life wealthy woman who takes in homeless future football star Michael Oher, who was living on the streets as a teen.
The award wraps up a wild year for Bullock, who had box-office smashes with “Blind Side” and “The Proposal” and a flop with “All About Steve,” which earned her the worst-actress trophy at the Razzies the night before the Oscars.
“Did I really earn this or did I just wear you all down?” Bullock asked the Oscar crowd. Bullock gushed with praise for her fellow nominees, including Meryl Streep, who she joked is “such a good kisser.”
The supporting-acting winners capped remarkable years, Mo’Nique startling fans with dramatic depths previously unsuspected in the actress known for lowbrow comedy and Waltz leaping to fame with his first big Hollywood role.
“I would like to thank the academy for showing that it can be about the performance and not the politics,” said Mo’Nique, who plays the heartless, abusive mother of an illiterate teen in the Harlem drama “Precious: Based on the Novel `Push’ by Sapphire.”
Mo’Nique added her gratitude to the first black actress to win an Oscar, Hattie McDaniel, the 1939 supporting-actress winner for “Gone With the Wind.”
“I want to thank Miss Hattie McDaniel for enduring all that she had to so that I would not have to,” she said, adding thanks to Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry, who signed on as executive producers to spread the word on “Precious” after it premiered at last year’s Sundance Film Festival.
“Precious” also won the adapted-screenplay Oscar for Geoffrey Fletcher.
Waltz’s award was presented by last season’s supporting-actress winner, Spain’s Penelope Cruz, who gave Waltz a kiss as he took the stage.
“Oscar and Penelope. That’s an uber-bingo,” Waltz said.
Though a veteran stage and TV actor in Europe, Waltz had been a virtual unknown in Hollywood before Quentin Tarantino cast him as the prattling, ruthless Jew-hunter Hans Landa in his World War II saga.
“Quentin with his unorthodox methods of navigation, this fearless explorer, took this ship across and brought it in with flying colors, and that’s why I’m here,” Waltz said. “This is your welcoming embrace, and there’s no way I can ever thank you enough.”
“Avatar” won three Oscars, for visual effects, art direction and cinematography, beating “The Hurt Locker” for the latter. “The Hurt Locker” also won out over “Avatar” for film editing, sound editing and sound mixing.
With nine nominations each, “The Hurt Locker” and “Avatar” came in tied for the Oscar lead.
“Hurt Locker” screenwriter Mark Boal, who won the Oscar for original screenplay dedicated his Oscar win to the troops still in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with those who did not make it home.
Bigelow also added a prayer for the troops.
“I’d just like to dedicate this to the women and men in the military who risk their lives on a daily basis in Iraq and Afghanistan and around the world,” Bigelow said. “And may they come home safe.”
Joining Bigelow to collect the best-picture Oscar were her fellow “Hurt Locker” producers Boal and Greg Shapiro. A fourth producer — financier Nicolas Chartier, a key money man behind the film — was barred from attending as punishment for violating awards rules by sending e-mails to Oscar voters urging them to back “The Hurt Locker” over “Avatar.”
Oscar overseers said Chartier still will receive his best-picture Oscar, but at a later time.
With just $12.6 million domestically, “The Hurt Locker” is the lowest-grossing film to win best picture in this modern era of detailed box-office bookkeeping.
The best-picture category was loaded with smash hits, “Avatar” at $720 million domestically and climbing and the animated blockbuster “Up” and “The Blind Side” topping $200 million.
“Up” earned the third-straight feature-animation Oscar for Disney’s Pixar Animation, which now has won five of the nine awards since the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences added the category.
The film features Ed Asner providing the voice of a crabby widower who flies off on a grand adventure by lashing thousands of helium balloons to his house.
“Never did I dream that making a flip-book out of my third-grade math book would lead to this,” said “Up” director Pete Docter, whose film also won for best musical score.
“Crazy Heart” also won for original song with its theme tune “The Weary Kind.”
Oscar hosts Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin opened the show with playful ribbing of nominees.

Winners
Following is a complete list of Oscar winners:

Best Picture: “The Hurt Locker’’ (Summit Entertainment)
Best Actor: Jeff Bridges for “Crazy Heart’’ (Fox Searchlight)
Best Actress: Sandra Bullock for “The Blind Side’’ (Warner Bros.)
Director: Kathryn Bigelow for “The Hurt Locker’’ (Summit Entertainment)
Foreign Language Film:“The Secret in Their Eyes’’ (El Secreto de Sus Ojos) — Argentina (Sony Pictures Classics)
Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz for “Inglourious Basterds’’ (The Weinstein Company)
Supporting Actress: Mo’Nique for “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire’’ (Lionsgate)
Original Screenplay: Mark Boal for “The Hurt Locker’’ (Summit Entertainment)
Adapted Screenplay: Geoffrey Fletcher for “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire’’ (Lionsgate)
Animated Feature: “Up’’ by Pete Docter (Disney/Pixar)
Animated Short Film: “Logorama’’ by Nicolas Schmerkin (Autour de Minuit)
Art Direction: Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg for art direction and Kim Sinclair for set decoration on “Avatar’’ (20th Century Fox)
Costume Design: Sandy Powell for “The Young Victoria’’ (Apparition)
Makeup: Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow for “Star Trek’’ (Paramount and Spyglass Entertainment)
Cinematography: Mauro Fiore for “Avatar’’ (20th Century Fox)
Live Action Short Film: “The New Tenants’’ by Joachim Back and Tivi Magnusson (A Park Pictures and M & M Production)
Documentary Feature: “The Cove’’ by Louie Psihoyos and Fisher Stevens for (Roadside Attractions)
Documentary Short: “Music by Prudence’’ by Roger Ross Williams and Elinor Burkett (iThemba Production)
Visual Effects: Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R. Jones for “Avatar’’ (20th Century Fox)
Sound Editing: Paul N. J. Ottosson for “The Hurt Locker’’ (Summit Entertainment)
Sound Mixing: Paul N.J. Ottosson and Ray Beckett for “The Hurt Locker’’ (Summit Entertainment)
Film Editing: Bob Murawski and Chris Innis for “The Hurt Locker’’ (Summit Entertainment)
Original Score: Michael Giacchino for “Up’’ (Disney/Pixar)
Original Song: “The Weary Kind’’ from “Crazy Heart’’ (Fox Searchlight), music and lyrics by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett

Vignettes
The absence of Farrah Fawcett from the traditional “in memoriam” segment of the Academy Awards broadcast Sunday was causing some to scratch their heads.
Fawcett, who died in June at the age of 62, was notably left out of the tribute, which was accompanied by James Taylor singing The Beatles’ “In My Life.”
Fawcett was predominantly a TV actress and starred in “Charlie’s Angels” and numerous made-for-TV movies. But she also appeared in theatrically released films, including 1976’s “Logan’s Run,” 1986’s “Extremities,” 1997’s “The Apostle” and 2000’s “Dr. T and the Women.”
There are often quibbles with the selections for the Oscar memoriam, but Fawcett’s credits — and her notoriety — would seem to qualify her for the tribute. The montage also included Michael Jackson, whose predominant medium certainly wasn’t theatrically released movies.
Film critic Roger Ebert was among those who questioned Fawcett’s absence on Twitter. Ebert called it a “major fail” and wrote, “They have a whole lot of ‘splaining to do.”
Said Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences spokeswoman Leslie Unger, “Every year it’s an unfortunate reality that we can’t include everybody.”

The real Leigh Anne Tuohy walked the red carpet at the Oscars ahead of best-actress nominee Sandra Bullock, who portrays her in “The Blind Side.”
“Go figure, here we are. It’s crazy,” she said in her sassy Memphis accent. “We’re excited.”
Tuohy said she still speaks several times a week to Bullock, and they went to dinner last week. Tuohy was accompanied by her husband, Sean, but their adopted son Michael Oher stayed away.
“He had a good taste of this and he said, `I’m not doing that,”’ Tuohy said.
Oher, who was the focus of the movie, plays for the NFL professional football team the Baltimore Ravens.
“He does that and he does it really well, and that’s what he wants to stick with,” she said.

It was a family affair on the Oscar red carpet Sunday, with mothers proving a popular date, along with children.
Supporting-actor nominee Jeremy Renner of “The Hurt Locker” brought his mother; Lenny Kravitz of “Precious” came with his actress-daughter Zoe; and “Precious” director Lee Daniels brought his brother’s daughter, Clara, 14.
“This counts as two good weeks of her speaking to me when we go home,” said Daniels, who raises Clara, “because all the kids are going to be looking at her like, `You was at the Oscars.”’
Clara’s scenes from “Precious” were left on the cutting room floor.
“What can I say?” she said, smiling.
After dizzying months of critical praise and awards, Daniels said he would finally collapse on Monday.
“And, hopefully, with some gold next to me,” he said.
For a few moments, the Gyllenhaal family had a reunion. Supporting-actress nominee Maggie of “Crazy Heart” and her actor-husband Peter Sarsgaard met up with her brother, Jake, in the crush of celebrities at the Kodak Theatre.
“You just witnessed a Gyllenhaal sandwich,” Jake said, smiling.
Presenter Zac Efron worked the carpet alone, his girlfriend Vanessa Hudgens nowhere in sight.
“I’m meeting up with Vanessa afterward,” he said.

Sandra Bullock moved serenely down the red carpet at Sunday’s Oscars, smiling and joking with media jammed in behind a hedge.
“It’s been a crazy two months and I think we’re all just happy to be here. I’ve been with these people, I feel like, more than I have with my husband,” she said, looking over her shoulder at hubby Jesse James, whose black motorcycle boots coordinated with his black tux and tie.
The best-actress nominee for “The Blind Side” won a Razzie on Saturday for worst actress in the romantic comedy flop “All About Steve.” Bullock was the rare A-list star who attended the awards that spoof the Oscars.
“I got no sleep and that’s why I’m tired today, but it’s making me relaxed,” she said.

George Clooney knows the kind of career boost that winning an Oscar can bring. It happened to him in 2005, as the supporting actor winner for “Syriana.”
He went into Sunday’s Academy Awards with a good idea of what wasn’t going to happen for him and his nominated “Up in the Air” co-stars Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick.
“It’s probably not going to be Vera or Anna, and it’s certainly not going to be me,” he said on the red carpet before going into the Kodak Theatre. “But what you do know is that a nomination for Vera and Anna changes their career. They will suddenly be first on the list to get jobs and that is a tremendous jump in their careers.”
Clooney was accompanied by his girlfriend, Italian actress Elisabetta Canalis. Tucked inside his tuxedo was a little treat to get through the long ceremony — a sterling flask with his monogram, GTC.

There are many reasons why George Clooney is one of the most popular stars in Hollywood: the crinkles around his eyes when he smiles, his soothing voice and his deep brown eyes.
But he’s also one of the most generous celebrities on the Oscars red carpet. He bounded across the red ropes Sunday to the bleachers with a pen in hand, ready to shake hands and sign autographs. The fans leaped out of their seats to get a glimpse of him, pressing toward the carpet that ran into the Kodak Theatre.
After he signed a woman’s security badge, she held it up in the air triumphantly and fans cheered for her.

Now Ryan Seacrest knows: Meryl Streep is watching.
After noting that Seacrest predicted Sandra Bullock would win the Oscar for best actress, Streep went nose-to-nose Sunday with the E! red carpet host.
“I was watching you earlier,” Streep said with mock gravity on her way into the ceremony at the Kodak Theatre.
The actress, who is nominated also for best actress for her performance in “Julia & Julie,” chastised Seacrest for “cheerleading a little,” but added: “That’s all right.”
Seacrest, a little stricken, responded: “I knew you were going to come and you were going to crush me.”