James Cameron’s Avatar won three Academy Awards at the 2010 ceremony.
The film won for Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, and Best Visual Effects. These awards recognized the movie’s imagined environments, stereoscopic photography, and extensive digital effects work. Avatar was nominated in nine categories overall, including Best Picture and Best Director.
Avatar did not win Best Picture or Best Director, despite being one of the year’s most prominent films. The Hurt Locker won both of those awards, making the ceremony especially notable because it was directed by Kathryn Bigelow, Cameron’s former wife.
The three technical victories reflected Avatar’s production priorities. Cameron and his team combined live-action photography, performance capture, digital characters, and detailed virtual environments to create Pandora and its inhabitants.