And the Oscar goes to...

So, awards season has come and gone, but it has been a great one nonetheless. This is a little late of a post, but better late than never, eh? Let's start with best picture and move on down the line.

Best Picture: The Hurt Locker. This movie went in as the frontrunner, but some people still thought Avatar would come out on top. I had a feeling all along that this would get best picture just because it stood the test of time. It was released last summer, and never really lost momentum with critics. It deservedly won. It is one of the best war movies ever made.

Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow-The Hurt Locker. Once again, Kathryn was the frontunner going in to the Oscars, but her stiffest competition was her ex-husband James Cameron for Avatar. I am glad Kathryn won, as she made the audience sit at the edge of their seats throughout the film. True movie making at its best.

Best Actor in a Leading Role: No surprise here, Jeff Bridges wins his first Oscar after many nominations. I haven't seen his performance in Crazy Heart, but I would bet that his biggest competition was Colin Firth in a Single Man. Firth's performance is hailed as the best of his career, and I hope to see both to determine who I think should've gotten this award. Nonetheless, congrats Bridges.

Best Actress in a Leading Role: Sandra Bullock comes away with this award. Her and Meryl Streep were battling it out all season winning awards here and there, but once we got the SAGs we saw that Bullock was slowly pulling away, and went in as the clear favorite. It is sad to see that Meryl, who has now been nominated 16 times, hasn't walked away with an Oscar in 27 years. I hope she can get another great role and finally win her 3rd Oscar sometime soon. I still think she deserved it last year for her performance in doubt (yes, even over Kate Winslet).

Best Actor in a Supporting Role: One of the easiest races to call this year was supporting actor. If I had to pick one category to bet on before the big night, it would've been this one. Christoph Waltz gave one of the fiercest performances ever to be on screen, and deserved this Oscar like no other. He was easily the favorite going in by a mile. The other nominees had a pretty easy night: go in, smile, have fun at the Oscars; no need to worry about winning an Oscar, Christoph already has it.

Best Actress in a Supporting Role: The second easiest category to pick would be supporting actress. Mo'Nique was the leader going in, and the producers milked that, holding this category to about midway through the ceremony, when it is usually the first award given out. Congrats Mo'Nique on your first nomination and win for this role.

Best Original Screenplay: There was a two way race here-Mark Boal for the Hurt Locker, and Quinten Tarantino for Inglourious Basterds. I knew that if the night was going for the Hurt Locker, then Boal would win, but if it wasn't Tarantino would. Well, needless to say, it went to Boal. Both were great scripts, so either one would've been a good win. Congrats Mark Boal.

Best Adapted Screenplay: Here is where the biggest surprise of the night came from. When Geoffrey Fletcher won this for Precious, it was clear that the Academy would shut Up in the Air out for any awards. I thought this would be an easy win for Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner. I think UITA peaked too early in the season to be a true contender on Oscar night. Remember when UITA was the favorite for best picture way back in December? It lost steam right in the middle of January, going into the critic's choice awards, Golden Globes, SAGs. It's okay, Reitman and Sheldon were the winners in my book.

Best Acheivement in Cinematopgraphy: Second most shock of the night (see above). I figured the Hurt Locker or The White Ribbon would win this award, but it really was a four-way race. The White Ribbon had the cinematographers guild win, while the Hurt Locker had almost every other win.

Editing: the Hurt Locker

Art Direction: Avatar-not a huge surprise here, and Sigourney Weaver presenting the award helped out also.

Best Original Score: Michael Giacchino for Up. This was an easy win for Giacchino, although if things would have gone for Avatar that night, I think James Horner could've come away with the award for Avatar. I think the right person won though, and I feel that Giacchino will have many more nominations (and wins) to come in his career.

Sound Mixing and Sound Editing: The Hurt Locker. once THL won these two, I think we all knew who would win Best Picture. Everyone thought Avatar would easily sweep the technical awards, but it didn't win many, so this was an early sign of how the night was gonna go.

Visual Effects: Avatar. Duh.

Best Animated Film: Up. Again, duh. Pixar has dominated this category in recent years, easy win for them.

Best Foreign Language Film: El secreto de sus ojos (Argentina). Third biggest surprise of the night. I thought the White Ribbon (Germany) would easily win this award, but it lost steam at the last minute I guess. TWR won multiple awards going into the Oscars to be considered a frontrunner.

Best Documentary: The Cove. This was an easy frontrunner goin in, and this has become one of the easier categories to predict in recent years.

Overall Oscar count: The Hurt Locker-6. Avatar-3. Up in the Air-0. Precious-2. Up-1. Star Trek-1.

Well folks, that's the list of winners (mostly) from the 82nd annual Academy Awards. What's gonna happen next year? Stay tuned, and we'll see. What an awards season it has been. Actually, a great year for movies all around. I could not be happier with the results. Thanks for reading.