Lady's Night At Oscars

For the first time in its history, a woman has been named the top movie director at the Oscars.

On what happened to be International Women's Day, Kathryn Bigelow last night made history when she was named Best Director for The Hurt Locker. She is the first woman to be crowned in the 82-year history of the Academy Awards.

Bigelow, who is one of only four women to be nominated for the best director prize, even beat her ex-husband, Avatar director James Cameron, to win the award, considered one of the most coveted in Hollywood.

As news came through of further military fatalities in the war zone yesterday, she dedicated her Oscar to "the people who risk their lives on a daily basis in Iraq and Afghanistan ... may they come home safe", before, fittingly, walking off stage to the tune of Helen Reddy's 1970s feminist anthem I Am Woman.

While the UK's Colin Firth, Dame Helen Mirren and Carey Mulligan may lost out to their Hollywood counterparts in the acting categories, the British Oscars contingent did not go home completely empty handed.

British costume designer Sandy Powell won for her period costumes in The Young Victoria, while Briton Ray Beckett shared the sound-mixing Oscar with Sweden's Paul N.J.Ottosson for their work on The Hurt Locker.

The Hurt Locker was named best film, capping off a momentous night for the low-budget Iraq war film, and confirming it as the victor in its much-hyped battle with Cameron's 3D sci-fi blockbuster Avatar.

The Hurt Locker follows the dangerous daily existence of an Army bomb defusal team. It earned six Oscars, including one for Mark Boal's original screenplay, based on his time as a journalist embedded with such a unit.

First-time winners took all four acting prizes: Sandra Bullock as best actress for The Blind Side, Jeff Bridges as best actor for Crazy Heart, Austria's Christoph Waltz as supporting actor for Inglourious Basterds, and Mo'Nique as supporting actress for Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire.

Mo’Nique became only the fifth black woman to win an acting Oscar, 70 years after Hattie McDaniel became the first to do so for Gone with the Wind.

In other awards, Argentina's The Secret in Their Eyes pulled off a surprise win for foreign-language film, while The Cove, an investigation into grisly dolphin-fishing operations in Japan, was picked as best documentary.

(BMcC/GK)