The Hurt Locker blazes apart a predictable Oscar night with six wins, including one with history made. Uploaded at 12:35pm.

Boom. The bomb squad is moving in now at the Kodak Theatre.

And so it has just been decided after 3 hours of glitz, self-congratulations, spilled Moet, brief speeches and making history at the 82nd Academy Awards, war drama The Hurt Locker wins Best Picture. Coupled with Best Director for Kathryn Bigelow (first ever female director to win), Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Editing,  Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing, the low-budget (production budget is 1/10 of Avatar) and low-grossing film at the box office ends up the biggest winner with six awards.

What can we make of James Cameron and the Na’vi people from Avatar, the monster blockbuster and one of the favourites to win Best Picture? At least it scores in the less glamorous categories – Best Visual Effects, Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction. No matter, the awards are always secondary to the titanic box office takings.

Jeff Bridges, Mo’Nique and Christoph Waltz win Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress respectively. Yawn. All were locked in winners before James Cameron ruled 3D and the box office. What about the match up between Sandra Bullockand Meryl Streep? No drama there either, as Sandra Bullock clinches Best Actress with panache. To boot, she won the Razzie earlier and even showed up to accept it. Don’t we just love Sandy?

The only shocker here? Up in the Air’s loss to Precious for Best Adapted Screenplay. Most considered the film to be the best this year, including this writer. At least writer-director Jason Reitman is still young full of remarkable potential and we can’t wait for his next hit after Thank You for Smoking, Juno and UITA. Another almost empty-handed loser is Inglourious Basterds, save for its Best Supporting Actor win.

But perhaps, the real biggest loser is the audience. What happened to a great awards show? Where is Brangelina?! Speeches are so short thanks to the backstage Thank You cams so here’s to an average awards show with predictable winners, succinct speeches without any dramatic tears or catcalls and safe dresses in safer colours at the red carpet.

Nonetheless, we love the triumph of the underdog and how The Hurt Locker reminded us that the little movie can.

Check back here for a full and complete coverage of the Oscars tonight. Until then, see you at the movies.

And the winners are…

Best PictureThe Hurt Locker

Best ActorJeff Bridges, Crazy Heart

Best ActressSandra Bullock, The Blind Side

Best Supporting Actor
Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds

Best Supporting Actress
Mo’Nique, Precious

Best Director
Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker

Best Original ScreenplayMark Boal, The Hurt Locker

Best Adapted Screenplay
Geoffrey Fletcher, Precious

Best Animated Film
Up

Best Foreign Language Film
El Secreto do Sus Ojos (Argentina)

Best Art Direction
 Avatar

Best Cinematography
 Avatar

Best Costume Design
The Young Victoria

Best Documentary
The Cove

Best Film Editing
The Hurt Locker

Best Makeup
Star Trek

Best Original Score
Up

Best Original Song
‘The Weary Kind’ from Crazy Heart by T-Bone Burnett & Ryan Bingham

Best Sound Editing
The Hurt Locker

Best Sound Mixing
The Hurt Locker

Best Visual Effects
 Avatar

Best Documentary Short
Music by Prudence

Best Animated Short
Logorama

Best Live-Action Short
The New Tenants