Mo'Nique wins Oscar for role in 'Precious'

LOS ANGELES - Villainous roles have snatched the supporting-acting prizes at the Academy Awards: "Precious" co-star Mo'Nique as a loathsome mother and "Inglourious Basterds" co-star Christoph Waltz as a sociable Nazi fiend.

With the industry's top trophy in hand, both performers capped remarkable years, Mo'Nique startling fans with dramatic depths previously unsuspected in the actress known for lowbrow comedy and Austrian-born veteran Waltz leaping to fame with his first big Hollywood role.

The blockbuster "Up" won the animated feature Oscar, and the Iraq War drama "The Hurt Locker" took the prize for original screenplay.

The Iraq War drama "The Hurt Locker" won its first category of the night, original screenplay for Mark Boal, who spun a story about the perils and pressures of a U.S. bomb unit in Iraq.

With nine nominations, "The Hurt Locker" tied for the Oscar lead with the science-fiction epic "Avatar." The competition between the front-runners does not heat up until later in the night, the two films nominated in categories that mostly come in the second half of the Oscar show.

The evening's last two categories, best director and picture, mark the two films' main rivalry, which is spiced up by a personal connection between "Hurt Locker" director Kathryn Bigelow and "Avatar" director James Cameron. They were married from 1989-91.

Cameron took the directing prize at the Golden Globes, but Bigelow earned the top honor from the Directors Guild of America, whose recipient almost always wins the same award at the Oscars.

If it happens, Bigelow would be the first woman in the 82-year history of the Oscars to win best director.

Screenwriter Boal thanked Bigelow, calling her an "extraordinary and visionary filmmaker," and dedicated his Oscar win to the troops still in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with those who did not make it home. Boal also affectionately recalled his father, who died a month ago.

"Up" earned the third-straight Oscar award for Disney's Pixar Animation, which now has won five of the nine awards since the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences added a category for animated features.

The film features Ed Asner providing the voice of a crabby widower who flies off on a grand adventure by lashing thousands of helium balloons to his house.

The country-music tale "Crazy Heart" won for original song with its theme tune "The Weary Kind."

The song category typically comes late in the show, after live performances of the nominees that have been spaced throughout the ceremony. Oscar producers tossed out those live performances this time in favor of montages featuring the songs and footage from the films they accompany.

Oscar hosts Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin opened the show with playful ribbing of nominees, including Meryl Streep, Sandra Bullock, Woody Harrelson, Mo'Nique, Cameron and Bigelow. They also made note of Oscar organizers' decision to double the best-picture category from five films to 10.

"When that was announced, all of us in Hollywood thought the same thing. What's five times two?" Martin said.

Leaders of the Academy widened the best-picture category from the usual five films to expand the range of contenders for a ceremony whose predictability had turned it into a humdrum affair for TV audiences.