The 82nd Academy Awards were held on March 7, 2010, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, co-hosted by Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin, co-stars of It's Complicated, who descended from the rafters after an opening number by Neil Patrick Harris. For the first time since 1943, when Casablanca won, ten films were nominated for Best Picture, a change the Academy had announced in June 2009, and a new preferential voting system was used to choose the winner.

The Hurt Locker, an Iraq War drama about an Army bomb disposal unit, won six of its nine nominations, including Best Picture, original screenplay for Mark Boal, film editing and both sound awards. Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman in the 82 years of the Oscars to win Best Director. Her chief rival was her former husband, James Cameron, whose Avatar also had nine nominations and won three, for art direction, cinematography and visual effects. Presenter Tom Hanks announced Best Picture without…