It was supposed to be a close-run thing between James Cameron's Avatar and Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker at the Oscars, but, as things turned out, Bigelow's Iraq War drama fairly hammered her former husband's science fiction epic.
The Hurt Locker picked up an impressive six statuettes last night, including the all-important prizes for best film and best director.
Bigelow thus became the first women ever to win the Academy Award for directing. Avatar managed just three awards, all in technical categories. One of those victors was the sole Irish champion of the evening: Richard Baneham for best visual effects. This constitutes a real triumph for the little guy.
Speaking from Los Angeles this morning, Baneham said walking up to collect the award was "an incredibly surreal moment".
Avatar is already the most financially successful film of all time, whereas The Hurt Locker is now, by some measures, the least financially successful film ever to take the top Oscar.
In the acting categories, every single favourite romped home. Much loved veteran Jeff Bridges, son of actor Lloyd Bridges, quite literally sauntered – arms swaggering – on stage to take the best actor prize for his role as a washed-up country singer in Crazy Heart.
“Thank you Mom and Dad for turning me on to such a groovy profession,” he drawled.
The best actress prize went to Sandra Bullock for her role as an adoptive mother in the sports drama The Blind Side. Best supporting actor was Christoph Waltz for playing a sadistic Nazi officer in Quentin Tarantino's raucous war film Inglourious Basterds.
Comedian Mo'Nique's searing performance as an abusive parent in Precious secured the best supporting actress gong.
The ceremony itself, hosted by duelling quipsters Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin, was presented in a weirdly shabby 1970s-style variety set that suggested a Morecambe and Wise Christmas show. There were a number of technical difficulties – many announcements proved inaudible to the television audience – but the most serious fluff was, yet again, associated with the notoriously dubious best foreign language film award.
Michael Haneke's lauded The White Ribbon and Jacques Audiard's A Prophet lost out to the modestly regarded Argentinean film The Secret in Their Eyes. Nothing changes.
Otherwise there was disappointment for the other Irish nominees.
As expected, Up won best animated picture ahead of The Secret of Kells.
Members of the Kells team, who did not travel to Los Angeles, assembled in the Set Theatre in Kilkenny to celebrate their nomination and did not expect to win.
There was real disappointment though for the team from Brown Bag, the makers of Granny O'Grimm - Sleeping Beauty. They had high hopes in the animated short category. The team held a party last night in Residence in St Stephen's Green attended by the Brown Bag team and their relatives.
Granny O'Grimm lost out to the French animation film Logorama which manages to pack 2,500 company logos into five minutes of film. It has been pulled several times from the internet by companies complaining about the unauthorised use of their logo.
The Door, made by Bray-based company Octagon Films, lost out in the best live short category to The New Tenants, about the relationship of 10 men who move into the same apartment.
Belfast-born sound engineer Peter J Devlin lost out for an Oscar for his sound mixing work on Star Trek to Hurt Locker.