The Oscars show was filled with historical firsts: a woman winning best director and the top acting prizes going to first-time winners.

Hurt Locker vs. Avatar

“The Hurt Locker” trumped “Avatar” for best picture and gained a historical win when Kathryn Bigelow earned best director. She’s the first woman to win the top filmmaker award in the 82-year history of the Academy Awards.

The Iraq war drama also won in film editing, sound editing, sound mixing, and writing (original screenplay).

Both “Hurt Locker’s” screenwriter Mark Boal, who won the Oscar for original screenplay, and Bigelow dedicated their awards to troops still in Iraq and Afghanistan and those who did not make it home.

With nine nominations each, “Avatar” and “The Hurt Locker” came in tied for the Oscar lead.

“Avatar” won three Oscars: visual effects, art direction, and cinematography.

First-Time Winners

The Oscars’ four acting prizes were given to first-time winners: Sandra Bullock as best actress for “The Blind Side”; Jeff Bridges as best actor for “Crazy Heart”; Mo’Nique as supporting actress for “Precious”; and Christoph Waltz as supporting actor for “Inglorious Basterds”.

Bullock has had two box-office hits this year, “The Blind Side” and “The Proposal”, and a flop, “All About Steve”, which won the worst-actress trophy at the Razzies the night before the Oscar.  She won for her role as a wealthy woman who takes in future NFL star Michael Oher, who was living on the streets as a teen.

Bullock’s acceptance speech

Bridges’ award has been a long time coming after being nominated four times in the past 38 years without a win.  In “Crazy Heart”, he played a boozy country singer trying to clean up his act. The movie’s theme song, “The Weary Kind”, won for best original song.

Bridges’ acceptance speech

Mo’Nique’s award for best supporting actress followed her remarkable performance in “Precious” where she showed dramatic depths previously unsuspected in the actress. “Precious” also won the adapted-screenplay Oscar for Geoffrey Fletcher. The movie was based off the novel “Push” by Sapphire.

Mo’Nique’s acceptance speech

Waltz is a veteran stage and TV actor in Europe but his best supporting actor award helped him leap to fame in Hollywood. Quentin Trantino cast him as the ruthless Hans Landa, nicknamed the “Jew-Hunder”, in “Inglorious Basterds”.

Waltz’s acceptance speech

Fresh Show Boosts Ratings

Oscar hosts Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin were the first dual Oscar hosts in 23 years. They poked fun at the nominees and the decision to double the best-picture category.

Leaders of the Academy widened the category to expand the range of contenders. Movies like the animated “Up” or the sci-fi “District 9” made for a more diverse line up.

Oscar ratings fell to an all-time low two years ago but ratings have been picking up as overseers have added livelier production numbers and new ways of presenting some awards. ABC’s Sunday telecast ratings show there was a 14 percent increase over the same rating for last year’s telecast, when “Slumdog Millionaire” was named best picture.

Click here to see a list of all the winners.

For more on the Oscars, watch ATVN live at 6 p.m. on Trojan Vision 8 or catch the live stream on http://www.trojanvision.com.