Oscar Hopeful Bigelow Sends Thanks to IFTA | The Irish Film & Television Network

Director and Producer of the nine-time Academy Award nominated ‘The Hurt Locker’ Kathryn Bigelow has previously directed features such as ‘Strange Days’, ‘Point Break’ and ‘K-19: The Widowmaker’. Hearing of ‘The Hurt Locker’s win at the Irish Film & Television Awards Kathryn reacted, saying: “I want to thank IFTA for this incredible acknowledgment. The outpouring of critical love for this film has truly kept it alive from an early release to the gathering momentum we see here today.”

She continued by thanking her cast and crew: “No one stands alone in accepting this award. Filmmaking is a collaboration – without the dedication and commitment of a profoundly talented cast, a fearless crew and courageous producers, ‘The Hurt Locker’ would not be the film honored at the ceremony – I am grateful to all who worked so hard and gave so much to this tough little war film.

“I am especially grateful for this recognition as it sheds light on such an impossible situation in the Middle East. I think we all felt a deep responsibility to tell this story with honesty given the courage the men and women display each day in the field. We all wanted to honor them and to honor Mark Boal’s script – who risked his life for the words on the page.”

The award winning director eloquently concluded her thanks by stating: “I am humbled, and filled with immeasurable gratitude for this wonderful award by this esteemed, indeed invaluable organisation.”

Actor Robert Downey Jr. who was awarded the Best International Actor award at the 2010 IFTAs for his title role in Guy Ritchie’s ‘Sherlock Holmes’, will be among the presenters at the Academy Awards Ceremony which will be hosted by ‘It’s Complicated’ co-stars Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin. On receiving his IFTA Robert Downey Jr. commented: "It's a great honor to receive the Best International Actor award from the Irish Film & Television Awards. The Irish arts and entertainment community is a wonderful, creative bunch of people and your appreciation of the work we did on Sherlock Holmes gives me great joy. Thank you so much."

‘The Hurt Locker’ which was awarded the title of Best International Film at the 2010 IFTAs is a suspenseful portrait of the courage under fire of the military’s unrecognised heroes: the technicians of a bomb squad who volunteer to challenge the odds and save lives doing one of the world’s most dangerous jobs. Their mission is clear – protect and save – but it’s anything but easy, as the margin of error when defusing a war-zone bomb is zero. The film is written by Mark Boal (Triple Frontier) and produced by Kathryn Bigelow, Nicola Chartier (Tangled), Greg Shapiro (Harold and Kumar go to White Castle) and the film’s cinematographer is Barry Ackroyd (United 93, The Wind That Shakes the Barley).

The Academy Award category of Best Picture comprises, this year, of ten nominated films. The reason behind this was explained in June of last year by president of the Academy Awards, Sid Ganis when he said: “Having 10 Best Picture nominees is going to allow Academy voters to recognize and include some of the fantastic movies that often show up in the other Oscar categories, but have been squeezed out of the race for the top prize”. As such ‘The Hurt Locker’ is joined in the group by James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’; Peter Jackson’s ‘District 9’, ‘The Blind Side’ from Gil Netter, Andrew A. Kosove and Broderick Johnson; Finola Dwyer’s ‘An Education’, Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Inglourious Basterds’; Lee Daniels’ ‘Precious’, The Coen Brothers’ ‘A Serious Man’; Jonas Rivera’s ‘Up’ and ‘Up in the Air’ from Jason Reitman.

The film is also nominated for Actor in a Lead Role for Jeremy Renner (28 Weeks Later); Directing for Kathryn Bigelow; Writing (Original Screenplay) for Mark Boal, Cinematography for Barry Ackroyd, Film Editing for Bob Murawski (Spider Man) and Chris Innis (Spider Man 3); Music (Original Score) for Buck Sanders (Max Payne), Sound Editing for Paul N. J. Ottosson (Spider-Man 2) and Sound Mixing for Paul N. J. Ottosson and Ray Beckett (The Wind that Shakes the Barley)

The 82nd Academy Awards feature a strong Irish presence Tomm Morre and Paul Young’s ‘The Secret of Kells’ is nominated for the Best Animated Feature Film, ‘The Door’, directed by Juanita Wilson and produced by Louise Curran and James Flynn is nominated for Best Live-Action Short Film and ‘Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty’ from Nicky Phelan and Darragh O’Connell is nominated in the Best Short Film (Animated) category. Finally Richard Baneham and his team are nominated in the Visual Effects category for their work on James Cameron's 'Avatar'.

The winners of the 82nd Academy Awards will be announced on Sunday, March 7th. For a full list of the Oscar nominations visit: http://www.oscars.org

The 82nd Academy Awards website is offering visitors a chance to guess this year’s winners and to take part in an Oscars trivia quiz daily in the run up to the ceremony. To take part visit http://oscar.go.com/extras/play-along

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