The 2010 Oscars were notable for two huge reasons.

The first was the presence of the biggest movie of all time [at the time]—James Cameron’s Avatar—across nine categories.

The second was the doubling of Best Picture nominees. We can debate the reasons and the impact of this decision—one that was additionally tweaked just two years later so that we have between five and ten [usually eight or nine] nominees each year. Some might say it was to increase the show’s relevance by including cultural landmarks like The Dark Knight that were left out the previous year in favor of more traditional Oscar fare like The Reader. Others would argue it was to improve the prospects of smaller titles, such as Winter’s Bone in 2011 or Amour in 2013. 

Regardless, in an Oscar year that felt big, it’s fairly remarkable that The Hurt Locker could come away with six trophies, and it’s not for a lack of worthy competition. From top to bottom, and especially in Best Picture, this was a great year for both the Oscars and film more generally. But if we held the ceremony today—and I was the only voter *muah hah hah*—here’s how Bigelow’s film would fare.

Best Cinematography

The Nominees:
Avatar
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
The White Ribbon

What won: Avatar
What should have won: Avatar

In hindsight, it’s a little surprising that Avatar won considering the cinematography branch’s apparent reluctance to give too much credit to work that’s obviously effects-laden. Still, Avatar, for some of it’s storytelling shortcomings, remains a visually spectacular motion picture. It’s a good lineup, and Inglourious Basterds is a close runner-up, but I’m giving this one to Mauro Fiore.

Best Sound Mixing

The Nominees:
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

What won: The Hurt Locker
What should have won: The Hurt Locker

Best Sound Editing

The Nominees:
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Up

What won: The Hurt Locker
What should have won: The Hurt Locker

I’m not super well-equipped to discuss sound mixing or editing, but here’s the bottom line: The Hurt Locker sounds spectacular. It uses sound to create genuinely white-knuckle suspense—something that holds up on a 10th, 11th, 12th watch.

Best Film Editing

The Nominees:
Avatar
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious

What won: The Hurt Locker
What should have won: Inglourious Basterds

The kind of editing I respond to is less visceral than that of The Hurt Locker, not that Bigelow’s is a poorly edited film. But I’ll look at Inglourious Basterds jumping from story to story without losing a step for an example of Oscar-worthy editing, and it would have been great to see Sally Menke get a statue before her untimely passing later that year.

Best Original Score

The Nominees:
Avatar
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Hurt Locker
Sherlock Holmes
Up

What won: Up
What should have won: Up

These are actually all really good scores, and in another year, Avatar or Fantastic Mr. Fox would have been worthy Oscar winners. But Up, man. Up.

Best Original Screenplay

The Nominees:
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
The Messenger
A Serious Man
Up

What won: The Hurt Locker
What should have won: Inglourious Basterds

If I had my way, Tarantino would have won his second screenplay Oscar here, instead of in 2013 for Django Unchained when he took down Boal for Zero Dark Thirty. All four pieces of writing are exceptional, but I think Tarantino’s was better here, while Boal improved upon his The Hurt Locker writing a few years later.

Best Actor

The Nominees:
Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
George Clooney, Up in the Air
Colin Firth, A Single Man
Morgan Freeman, Invictus
Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker

Who won: Jeff Bridges
Who should have won: George Clooney

Jeff Bridges is good in Crazy Heart, but it’s hardly the actor’s finest performance in a career full of legendary work. I’m guessing a lot of people would probably lean toward Firth, but neither his performance in Tom Ford’s film nor the film itself really clicked with me. 

Clooney, on the other hand, is as good as he’s ever been or will be [at least to date]. I responded much more strongly to Up in the Air when I first saw it than my recent re-watch. It’s a film of a certain time, which feels weird to say for something eight years old, but it just doesn’t resonate the way it did in the middle of the Great Recession. 

Still, Clooney is remarkable. It feels like a role written for him, and the fact that he has since settled down, gotten married, had kids, makes it all the more interesting.

Best Director

The Nominees:
Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
James Cameron, Avatar
Lee Daniels, Precious
Jason Reitman, Up in the Air
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds

Who won: Kathryn Bigelow
Who should have won: Kathryn Bigelow

What a wild situation to have former spouses as the two front-runners in the Best Director category at the Oscars. None of the screenwriters in attendance could have come up with something so juicy.

But credit Bigelow and Cameron for their class, and while one could argue that the latter’s achievements are more relevant and big, you can’t take this away from Bigelow. It was and remains a big deal that she won this award. The Academy and the film industry at large both still have a long way to go toward equal status for men and women, but this was an important step.

Best Picture

The Nominees:
Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air

What won: The Hurt Locker
What should have won: The Hurt Locker

There are five films on here that I wouldn’t have been mad about winning Best Picture, and three others are just a few notches below. Only District 9 and The Blind Side feel out of place in this lineup of ten.

An Education, Up in the Air, and Precious each features one of the best performances of the year. Avatar, as I stated earlier, holds up as breathtaking spectacle. Up is top three Pixar. A Serious Man is top three Coen Brothers. Inglourious Basterds is top three Tarantino.

The Hurt Locker is the pick, however. The Academy got it right in the moment. That’s because the film is decidedly not of the moment. It’s transcendent and humane, and everything about it just comes together so spectacularly.