'Avatar' was directed by James Cameron and 'The Hurtlocker' was directed by Kathryn Bigelow. This is newsworthy as they were both previously married to one another and so made the competition between the two films more fierce. 'Avatar' had a budget of $237,000,000 whilst 'The Hurtlocker' came in at an estimated $11,000,000. The two films were of a completely different nature and genre - 'Avatar' being a futuristic, fictional adventure and 'The Hurtlocker', a war thriller very much set within the real world. 'Avatar' was nominated for nine awards in total at the 2009 Oscars, these being 'Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Directing, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, Best Picture, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing' and 'Best Visual Effects' though only won three. 'The Hurtlocker was equally nominated for nine oscars awards - 'Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Film Editing, Best Actor, Best Original Score' and 'Best Cinematography' - and managed to pick up six of them on the night. Science Fiction films have never been particuarly big winners at the Oscars and so this could provide one reason why 'The Hurtlocker' triumphed over 'Avatar'. The voting board may have also viewed the success of 'The Hurtlocker' as a much bigger achievement than 'Avatar's' based on how little funding was put into it as opposed to the $237,000,000 that was put into making 'Avatar'. 'The Hurtlocker' was also distributed by Summit Entertainment, which at the time was a relativley new, small company which had never won an Oscar before. At the box office 'Avatar' gained a total gross of $749,766,139 whilst 'The Hurtlocker' managed to gain $12,647,089 from audiences.
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