Locker is ACE

Tonight’s Eddie victory to Kathryn Bigelow’s mesmerisingly compelling “The Hurt Locker” definitely positions it as the one to beat come Oscar night. Dashing the hopes of those trying to position the Best Picture category as a two-horse race between “Locker” and James Cameron’s “Avatar”, “Locker’s” win here puts another feather in its already impressive cap that consists of wins at the two top guilds, the DGA and PGA. Given the enviable track record the ACE has in predicting the Film editing Oscar winner, “Locker” looks tantalisingly close to being our next Best Picture winner given the strong correlation that exists between the two categories.

A win at the WGA now looks increasingly likely (especially since “Inglourious Basterds” was given the shaft by the Guild’s ridiculous eligibility rules). It’s overwhelmingly clear that most of the guilds have rallied around “The Hurt Locker”, let’s see if the Academy follows suit.

In the other categories, “The Cove” and “Up” build on recent wins at the DGA and Annies respectively by taking out the Documentary and Animated categories, while “The Hangover” was a slight-surprise victor over the much-fancied “(500) Days of Summer” and the idiosyncratic “A Serious Man”.