Academy Awards

LOS ANGELES, March 8 (UPI) -- "The Hurt Locker" won six Academy Awards, including the most-coveted honors for Best Picture and Best Director.

"The Hurt Locker" tells of a bomb-disposal squad in Iraq and centers on the team member who seems to live for the excitement of dealing with such dangers. It is a relatively low-budget film and didn't draw much of an audience when it was in theatrical release.

However, it has grabbed wide critical acclaim and Sunday's Oscar ceremonies underscored that. "The Hurt Locker's" Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win the Best Director Academy Award and the film beat out an expanded field of 10 in taking Best Picture.

It also won for original screenplay, film editing, sound mixing and sound editing.

Among the other films vying for Best Picture was "Avatar," which this week topped the $700 million mark in U.S. ticket sales. It was one of the highest-budget and most marketed films and left the awards show with three statues -- art direction, cinematography and visual effects -- but without a major honor.

The acting awards went to the odds-on favorites in each category: Jeff Bridges won Best Actor for "Crazy Heart," Sandra Bullock took Best Actress for "The Blind Side," Mo'Nique was Best Supporting Actress for "Precious" and Christoph Waltz was honored as Best Supporting Actor for "Inglourious Basterds."