"The Hurt Locker" scores early victory at Oscar Award ceremony

LOS ANGELES, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Iraq war movie, "The Hurt Locker", scored an early victory with Mark Boal claiming the Oscar for best original screenplay Sunday night.

Poster of "The Hurt Locker"

Along with "Avatar", "The Hurt Locker" each have a leading nine nominations heading into the ceremony at the Kodak Theatre, Los Angeles.

While "Avatar'' has been dominant at the box office, "The Hurt Locker" has been an awards-season favorite, earning the top prize from the Producers Guild of America and a best director award for Kathryn Bigelow. Both the PGA and DGA awards have traditionally been precursors to Oscar glory.

"I was a reporter back from Iraq with the idea for a story about these men on the front lines of an unpopular war," said Boal, who dedicated the Oscar to his father, who died one month ago. "I thought it might make a movie. The result wildly exceeded my expectations. And that is thanks to so many people. ... Most of all to one extraordinary individual and visionary filmmaker, Kathryn Bigelow. This belongs to you."

"I would also like to thank and dedicate this to the troops -- the 115,000 who are still in Iraq, the 12,000 in Afghanistan and the more than 30,000 wounded and 4,000 who have not made it home," he said.

Meanwhile, Austrian actor Christoph Waltz continued his winning ways Sunday night by claiming the Oscar for best supporting actor for his portrayal of a Jew-hunting Nazi in writer/director Quentin Tarantino's World War II adventure "Inglourious Basterds."