And the Oscar Goes to The Hurt Locker

We are comparing our Oscar predictions from February 2 with the winners tonight.

Award	Prediction	Winner
Best Picture	Avatar	The Hurt Locker
Director	Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker	Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
Actor	Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart	Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
Actress	Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side	Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
Supporting Actor	Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds	Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
Supporting Actress	Mo'Nique, Precious	Mo'Nique, Precious
Original Screenplay	Mark Boal, The Hurt Locker	Mark Boal, The Hurt Locker
Adapted Screenplay	Nick Hornby, An Education	Geoffrey Fletcher, Precious
Animated Feature Film	Up	Up
Foreign Language Film	The White Ribbon, Germany	The Secret in Their Eyes (El Secreto de Sus Ojos), Argentina
Cinematography		Avatar
Art Direction		Avatar
Visual Effects		Avatar
Film Editing		The Hurt Locker
Sound Mixing		The Hurt Locker
Sound Editing		The Hurt Locker
Costume Design		The Young Victoria
Makeup		Star Trek
Original Score		Up
Orginal Song		The Weary Kind from Crazy Heart, Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett
Documentary Feature Film		The Cove
Documentary Short Film		Music by Prudence
Animated Short Film		Logorama
Live Action Short Film		The New Tenants

We had picked The Hurt Locker for one of the top awards, it instead won three of those picks for six Oscars overall. Clearly it beat out Avatar, which did win three Oscars. Crazy Heart, Up, and Precious won two Oscars each.

But don't feel sorry for Avatar. The Hurt Locker has only grossed $18,100,000 worldwide, whereas Avatar has grossed $2,564,689,342 worldwide (and counting). The Best Foreign Language Film, The Secret in Their Eyes (El Secreto de Sus Ojos) from Argentina, has grossed $18,000,000, and it has not yet been released in the United States.

Hollywood votes for the movie it wants you to see, not the movie you would want to see. In my opinion, both Avatar and The Hurt Locker had flawed story writing. Avatar is nonetheless a great movie, The Hurt Locker is merely good, Crazy Heart is very good, and Up is excellent. Up is the movie we would have given our Best Picture vote (the Animated Feature Film category is designed to discourage that, which is why we predicted it only for that award and not for Best Picture).

And why does Hollywood want you to watch The Hurt Locker? The director is the ex-wife of James Cameron, who made Avatar, so there is a double revenge irony fantasy. And The Hurt Locker is an anti-war film about the Iraq war, that tries not to be too obvious. Avatar sometimes went over the top with its anti-war themes. And Hollywood thinks big office receipts are their own reward, and likes to save its big awards for small movies.

Several other deserving films were nominated for Best Picture. So, in the final analysis, The Hurt Locker won because on several levels it was judged the most anti-Avatar movie nominated. That may be the ultimate tribute Hollywood could give to Avatar.