Despite Star Trek director J.J. Abrams' prediction that science fiction films were likely to do well at the 82nd Annual Academy Awards, frontrunner Avatar failed to pick up the major trophies.

James Cameron's epic was beaten as Best Motion Picture by The Hurt Locker, whose director, Kathryn Bigelow, also took home the Best Director award, ahead of her ex-husband Cameron. Avatar did win Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography and Best Visual Effects.

Although nominated in four categories, Neil Blompkamp's District 9 failed to win any awards, while multiple-nominee Star Trek won Best Makeup. Up won Best Animated Feature Film, as well as Best Music for Michael Giacchino's score. Wallace and Grommit's latest opus, A Matter of Loaf and Death, was beaten for Best Animated Short by Logorama.

At the Golden Raspberry Awards handed out the previous evening, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen "triumphed" with three awards: Worst Picture, Director and Screenplay. John Travolta's adaptation of Battlefield Earth was voted worst movie of the decade, with Razzies founder John Wilson pointing out that "it's so bad, it's entertaining, in ways that the people who made it had no idea it would be."