As far as movies go, there are only two types of awards; the fake ones and the real ones, or to be more specific, the MTV Movie Awards and the Academy Awards. And, on March 7, 2010, the 82 Annual Oscars showed yet again why they're the real awards ceremony with a stunning and beautiful show with its fair balance of both the well-deserved and the delightfully surprising.

Led by three-time Oscar host Steve Martin and first-timer Alec Baldwin, it began with the usual decently written stand-up. The entire night is full of laughs as Martin, Baldwin, and the various announcers poke fun at their fellow actors and actresses, directors and producers.

Or, in some cases, even themselves, as actor and comedian Ben Stiller came on stage decked out as a Na'vi from James Cameron's Avatar to announce the best makeup category (for which Avatar didn't even have a nomination).

Even Taylor Lautner and Kristen Stewart join the ride to introduce a horror montage of sorts, that somehow places New Moon not only as a horror, but one on par with Interview With a Vampire.

What makes up for that is an expert dance routine by the Legion of Extraordinary Dancers to the tunes of the Best Original Score nominees.

In between the hilarious is also the serious.

This year's In Memoriam montage, a tribute to figures in film entertainment that have passed within the year prior to the ceremony, and even with its unfortunate amount of personalities to be mentioned, this section of the ceremony still managed to receive criticism for the presence of the non-actor Michael Jackson and the absence of actress Farah Fawcett.

Also, a separate memorial feature for director John Hughes (Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Weird Science, Home Alone) brought with it a different atmosphere to the proceedings.

The easiest to note in terms of wins at the Oscars are the expected ones. Star Trek's Best Makeup win was likely, as well as Up's awards for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Score, and Fisher Stevens' documentary feature The Cove.

And definitely the least surprising awards of the night were the Best Supporting Actor, Best Actor and Best Actress awards, going to Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds), Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart) and Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side) respectively.

The night did not go without its fair share of bolts from the blue, however. For instance, a much unexpected Best Supporting Actress nod for Precious prompted winner Mo'Nique to open her speech thanking the Academy for allowing winning to be about the performance and not the politics.

Precious' next award for Best Adapted Screenplay may surprise some, being placed against memoir adaptation An Education, British television revision In The Loop and short film expansion District 9.

The Hurt Locker winning Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing against the aurally stunning Star Trek raised some eyebrows as well, even with Locker being a strong choice for the award.

And Avatar winning Best Art Direction over The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus and Best Cinematography against Inglourious Basterds and strong underdog Harry Potter might have been questionable to some as well, just like British royalty flick The Young Victoria overtaking The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus for Best Costume Design.

And in many people's opinion, a question mark should go over the Hurt Locker win for Best Original Screenplay over Quentin Tarentino's Inglourious Basterds.

By far, however, the real commotion surrounded the last two awards of the night; Best Director and Best Picture, both with their controversies.

The Best Director Oscar this year presented a fantastic opportunity for the first time either an African-American (Lee Daniels, Precious) or a woman (Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker) could win this coveted Oscar.

Also, with this year being the first time since 1944 that 10 films were nominated for Best Picture, and with both Daniels and Bigelow obviously nominated there as well, there was a lot to talk about.

Avatar's nomination in both these categories gave us even more to talk about.

Not only because this was a fantastic year for James Cameron's sudden return to feature film, but that the last time he was so successful he won this very same award.

And, more importantly, he's nominated against his ex-wife, Bigelow. Plus they have the same number of nominations, which happens to be the highest of the night.

At the end of the night, Bigelow walks away with both Oscars, making The Hurt Locker the night's upset with a stunning 6 awards out of 9 nominations, beating Avatar's 3 but falling short of Titanic's 11-Oscar record.

Other records, definitely more unfortunate, are Meryl Streep's most nominations for a single actress, now at 16, and most Best Actress nominations at 13, but not walking away with a win.

As expected, Up In The Air walked away empty-handed (which probably explains why George Clooney looked so upset from start to finish), and wild horse Crazy Heart walked away with 2 of 3 possible Oscars.

The 8 Basterds nominations reap only 1 winner, the promising Precious walking away with two, and District 9's 4 produce nothing to show at the end of the night.

This, like every other Oscar night, though, definitely aimed to please and hit the mark dead-on.

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