82nd Academy Awards

The 82nd Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2009 and took place March 7, 2010, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 5:30 p.m. PST / 8:30 p.m. EST. The ceremony was scheduled well after its usual late-February date to avoid conflicting with the 2010 Winter Olympics. During the ceremony, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented Academy Awards (commonly referred to as Oscars) in 24 categories. The ceremony was televised in the United States by ABC. Actors Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin hosted the show. Martin hosted for the third time, having presided over the 73rd and 75th ceremonies, while Baldwin hosted the show for the first time. This was the first telecast to have multiple hosts since the 59th ceremony.

On June 24, 2009, Academy president Sid Ganis announced at a press conference that, in an attempt to revitalize interest surrounding the awards, the 2010 ceremony would feature ten Best Picture nominees instead of five, a practice that was discontinued after the 16th annual awards ceremony (held in 1944). On February 20, 2010, in a ceremony at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, the Academy Awards for Technical Achievement were presented by host Elizabeth Banks.

The Hurt Locker won six awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Kathryn Bigelow, the first woman to win an Academy Award for Best Director. Other winners were Avatar with three awards, Crazy Heart, Precious, and Up, with two awards, and The Cove, Inglourious Basterds, The Blind Side, Logorama, Music by Prudence, The New Tenants, The Secret in Their Eyes, Star Trek, and The Young Victoria with one. The telecast garnered nearly 42 million viewers (in North America), making it the highest rated Oscar ceremony since the 77th Academy Awards in 2005.