The Hurt Locker ceremony, it won six Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director for Bigelow (the first woman to win this award), and Best Original Screenplay for Boal. "The Hurt Locker" is based on accounts of Mark Boal, a freelance journalist who was embedded with an American bomb squad in the war in Iraq for two weeks in 2004. The director Kathryn Bigelow was familiar with Boal's work before his experiences, having adapted one of his "Playboy" articles as the short-lived television series "The Inside" in 2002. When Boal was embedded with the squad, he accompanied its members 10 to 15 times a
No Country for Old Men (film) Men" became the biggest box-office hit for the Coens to date, until it was surpassed by "True Grit" in 2010. "No Country for Old Men" is the third-lowest-grossing Oscar winner, only surpassing "Crash" (2005) and "The Hurt Locker" (2009). "The final balance sheet was a $74 million gross" domestically. "Miramax" employed its typical 'gradual-release' strategy: it was "released in November... was initially given a limited release... and... benefited from the nomination and the win, with weekend grosses picking up after each." By contrast, the previous year's winner, "The Departed" was a "Best Picture winner with the time series chart that