The 82nd Academy Awards: Records Set, Barriers Broken.

Hosted by the champions of awkward, inside, and generally poor jokes, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin, the 82nd Academy Awards ceremony was as much an event for the people whose entire careers culminate, as a show for viewers at home. It was a night of firsts and sixteenths.
Meryl Streep (Julie & Julia) was nominated for the sixteenth time for Best Actress, and Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side) won her first Oscar ever in the same category. For Sandra, it was a dream come true. For Meryl, it confirmed that she has nothing to prove to anyone. Her nomination made her a record-holder, solidifying her immensely talented self in film history.
Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart) won his first Oscar as Best Actor after six nominations. In pure joy, his Dudeness laughed the whole way through his acceptance speech, humbly thanking, and attaching the suffix “man” to, everyone that helped him along the way.
The actors and actresses nominated for their performances in leading roles were praised by their friends, directors, and costars in one of the most honest and meaningful sections of the evening, showing that this event is not just for the home-viewer’s pleasure, but is also a night that people dedicate their entire professional lives to attending.
In this celebrity obsessed era, these performers, and the people who give these actors films to act in are honored for their work in the film community. Despite the tuxedos, makeup, and designer gowns, this section of the evening showed off an especially human side of the Academy.
In stark contrast to the longer, heartfelt presentation of the best actor and actress awards, Tom Hanks got right to the point when he presented the award for best picture.
If ears could blink, it would have been possible to miss the award entirely, and that blink-fast award went to The Hurt Locker. Director Kathryn Bigelow was the first woman to receive the award for Best Director, and war correspondent-turned-screenwriter Kevin Boal received the Oscar for best original screenplay. The film picked up three other Oscars in Editing, Sound, and Sound Editing, to cap off this film’s rather surprising run.
In her acceptance speech, Bigelow thanked the investors who took a risk on the film, which goes to show that what makes a good film is not the box office charts, but the collaboration and deep passion that each person on the set brings to the table.
Bigelow and her team dedicated the film and the award to people in all types of uniforms everywhere, and thanked them for doing what they do so that she and the rest of the filmmaking industry could write about it, film it, and honor their work on the screen.
With someone receiving their first Oscar in almost every category, a slew of first-time nominees, and gender barriers broken, the film industry enters a new year: a year for taking risks and keeping those new faces around for a long time.