Kathryn Bigelow made movie history last night becoming the first female filmmaker to win the Best Director Oscar as her movie The Hurt Locker dominated the awards.
The two major categories of Best Picture and Best Director were a two horse race between the $300 million budget Avatar and the $11 million gritty war drama The Hurt Locker.
But it proved to be The Hurt Locker's night as it collected six awards, Best Picture, Director Original Screenplay for Mark Boal, Editing, Sound Editing and Sound Mixing.
Collecting her award from Barbra Streisand the director, who has dominated the awards circuit, said: "There's no way to describe it, it's the moment of a lifetime."
Despite missing out on the Golden Globes The Hurt Locker picked up awards at the Baftas and many of the Guild Awards, with Bigelow becoming the first woman to win at the Director's Guild Awards earlier in the year.
The movie, which cast mainly unknown stars, follows an elite bomb squad in Iraq as they face danger on a daily basis counting down the days until they can go home.
But the Oscars was a predictable night in the acting categories as Jeff Bridges finally got his hands on the Best Actor Oscar for his performance in Crazy Heart.
The actor had won practically everything on the awards circuit and was the red hot favourite to walk away with the gong.
There was another first time winner for Best Actress as Sandra Bullock for her performance in The Blind Side.
Her Oscar win came just hours after she accepted her Razzie for Worst Actress, for her role in All About Steve, and she praised all of the other nominees in the Best Actress category.
"Gabby, I love you so much. You are exquisite. You are beyond words to me. Carey, your grace and your elegance and your beauty and your talent makes me sick.
"Helen, I feel like we are family through family and I don't have the words to express just what I think of you. And Meryl, you know what I think of you and you are such a good kisser."
There were also no surprises in the supporting categories as Christoph Waltz picked up yet another award for his role in Inglourious Basterds while Mo'Nique flew the flag for gritty drama precious as she scooped Best Supporting Actress.
While The Hurt Locker took Best Original Screenplay there was a shock in the Best Adapted Screenplay category as Precious walked away with the prize.
Up In The Air writers Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner had been picking up that gong at every award ceremony but the George Clooney led movie was left empty handed.
Up became just the second animation movie to be nominated for Best Picture but it had to be content with the Best Animation Oscar this time around, the movie also went on to scoop Best original Score.
While Avatar missed out on the big prizes it did take home three awards for Art Direction, Cinematography and Visual Effects.
Full List of Winners:
Best Film: "The Hurt Locker"
Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow "The Hurt Locker"
Best Actress: Sandra Bullock "The Blind Side"
Best Actor: Jeff Bridges "Crazy Heart"
Best Supporting Actress: Mo'Nique "Precious"
Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz "Inglourious Basterds"
Animated Feature: "Up"
Original Screenplay: "The Hurt Locker"
Adapted Screenplay: "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire"
Art Direction: "Avatar"
Cinematography: "Avatar"
Film Editing: "The Hurt Locker"
Foreign Language Film: "El Secreto de Sus Ojos" (Argentina)
Best Original Score: "Up"
Best Original Song: "The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)" from "Crazy Heart"
Costume Design: "The Young Victoria"
Best Documentary: "The Cove"
Best Documentary (short subject): "Music by Prudence"
Best Short Film (Animated): "Logorama"
Best Short Film (Live Action): "The New Tenants"
Makeup: "Star Trek"
Sound Editing: "The Hurt Locker"
Sound Mixing "The Hurt Locker"
Visual Effects: "Avatar"
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Tagged in Kathryn Bigelow