The small-budget hit “The Hurt Locker” conquered an army of Tinseltown blockbusters last night to win six Oscars — including Best Picture and a historic Best Director award for Kathryn Bigelow.
She became the first woman ever to win Hollywood’s top moviemaking honor.
Her film about a US bomb squad in Iraq bested ex-husband James Cameron’s sci-fi hit “Avatar,” which had been nominated in the same categories.
“This really — there’s no other way to describe it — it’s the moment of a lifetime,” Bigelow said after getting the director award.
“We’d just like to dedicate this to the women and men who risk their lives on a daily basis in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
As presenter Barbra Streisand and Bigelow left the stage, the studio band played Helen Reddy’s women’s-lib anthem, “I Am Woman.”
Bigelow wasn’t off stage long.
With the clock ticking toward midnight and the show running nearly 30 minutes late, Tom Hanks caught viewers off guard by suddenly announcing that “Hurt” had won Best Picture.
He didn’t name any of the nine other nominees.
Much of the pre-Oscar hype had focused on “Hurt” and Goliath rival “Avatar.”
“Avatar” cost $300 million and brought home a record $2.5 billion.
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Both those numbers dwarfed “Hurt’s” $15 million production cost and box-office take of $19.3 million, the lowest take for any Best Picture.
“Avatar” won for art direction, cinematography and visual effects.
Cameron was a good sport about losing. He smiled and cheered when Bigelow — his wife from 1989 to 1991 — won.
“Hurt” also won for original screenplay, sound editing, film editing and sound mixing.
“I was a reporter back from Iraq with the idea for a story: these men on the front lines . . . I thought it might make a movie. The results wildly exceeded my expectations,” said “Hurt” writer Mark Boal.
PARADE DOWN RED CARPETS OF OSCARS PAST
Sandra Bullock took the nod for Best actress for “The Blind Side,” playing a tough Southern woman who adopts a future NFL star.
Not only did Bullock stun many Academy Award handicappers, she was the first one to ever win the oddball double of an Oscar and Razzie.
She showed up at the mock award ceremony on Saturday to take home the Worst Actress prize for the comedy stinker “All About Steve.”
She joked that she had been in Hollywood so long, the academy had to recognize her some day.
“Did I really earn this or did I just wear y’all down?” she asked.
Jeff Bridges fulfilled his family’s showbiz destiny, winning the Oscar for Best Actor.
“Thank you, academy members . . . Mom and Dad look!” he shouted, looking up to the heavens.
“Thank you, Mom and Dad for turning me on to such a groovy profession.”
The son of acting legend Lloyd Bridges and writer Dorothy Bridges won for playing a washed-up country star in the critically acclaimed “Crazy Heart.”
“They loved show business so much,” he said.
“This honors them as much as it honors me.”
“Crazy Heart” also won for best original song, “The Weary Kind.”
Mo’Nique won Best Supporting Actress as the cruel mother of an obese, illiterate Harlem teenager in “Precious.” Geoffrey Fletcher was honored with Best Adapted Screenplay for the heart-wrenching film.
“I would like to thank the academy for showing that it can be about the performance and not the politics,” said Mo’Nique as she choked back tears.
“To my amazing husband, Sidney — thank you for showing me that sometimes you have to forgo doing what’s popular in order to do what’s right.”
Mo’Nique joined an exclusive club of African-American actresses to take Oscar gold.
They are Hattie McDaniel, Best Supporting actress for “Gone with the Wind,” Whoopi Goldberg, Best Supporting Actress for “Ghost,” Halle Berry, Best Actress for “Monster’s Ball,” and Jennifer Hudson, Best Supporting Actress for “Dreamgirls.”
Mo’Nique took note of her history-making predecessors.
“I want to thank Miss Hattie McDaniel for enduring all she had to so that I would not have to,” Mo’Nique said.
Fletcher, on the verge of tears, called his “Precious” screenplay award a “dream.”
“This is for everybody who works on a dream every day. Precious boys and girls everywhere,” he said.
Christoph Waltz won Best Supporting Actor for “Inglorious Bastards,” in which he played a vindictive Nazi colonel.
“This is your welcoming embrace. There’s no way I can thank you enough, but I can start right now,” Waltz said, clutching the Oscar.
“Thank you.”
The show’s traditional “In Memoriam” featured a new, live twist.
Singer-songwriter James Taylor strummed the Beatles classic “In My Life” as the names of faces of passed movie greats flashed on the screen.
The final face that graced the stage was of Oscar winner and Academy President Karl Malden, who died last year at age 97. With Post Wire Services