-
Producer Christian Colson along with the cast and crew of Slumdog Millionaire celebrate after they won the Oscar for best picture during the 81st Academy Awards in Hollywood, California - Source: Reuters -
View Photos
-
Related
Rags-to-riches romance Slumdog Millionaire swept the Oscars,
winning eight awards including the prize for best picture in a
climactic triumph for a movie that almost failed to get
released.
Among the Slumdog honors, Briton Danny Boyle was named best
director for the often dark but ultimately hopeful tale about a
poor Indian boy who competes for love and money on a TV game show,
and writer Simon Beaufoy won adapted screenplay.
Slumdog also earned Oscars for best cinematography, sound mixing,
film editing, original score for composer AR Rahman and best song,
Jai Ho for Rahman and lyricist Gulzar.
Only seven other films in the 81-year-history of the Oscars have
won eight or more awards.
Filmed in the teeming slums of Mumbai, the movie was orphaned at
one point when it was dropped by financier Warner Independent
Pictures, a division of giant Warner Bros.
Fox Searchlight Pictures ultimately rescued the project and
released the movie to critical acclaim in November.
"You've been been so generous to us this evening, and I want to
thank you for that," Boyle said to the Academy Award audience when
accepting his trophy.
Kate Winslet was named best actress for her dramatic turn as a
former Nazi prison guard who involves herself in a love affair with
a teenage boy in The Reader.
She fought back tears when accepting her trophy and remembered a
time as a child when she dreamed of winning it.
"I would be lying if I said I haven't made a version of this speech
before. I think I was probably eight-years-old and staring into the
bathroom mirror," she said.
"This would have been a shampoo bottle," she said gesturing to the
golden Oscar statuette.
"Well it's not a shampoo bottle now!"
Sean Penn, best known for tough guy roles in movies such as Mystic
River, earned his second Oscar for best actor, portraying slain gay
rights activist Harvey Milk in Milk.
"I did not expect this, and I want to be very clear that I do know
how hard I make it for you to appreciate me, often," he said.
"I am touched by the appreciation."
Penn goes political
Penn also gave one of the few political speeches of the evening,
asking people to rethink their beliefs and support gay
marriage.
Other top honors went to Penelope Cruz who became the first Spanish
actress to win an Academy Award for her supporting role in Vicky
Cristina Barcelona.
Heath Ledger was posthumously named best supporting actor for
his villainous role as The Joker in Batman movie The Dark
Knight.
The award for Ledger, who died last year of an accidental
prescription drug overdose, brought the crowd to its feet.
He became only the second actor after Peter Finch to win after death.
The Oscar was accepted by his father, Kim Ledger, sister Kate
and mother Sally Bell.
"This award tonight would have humbly validated his quiet
determination to be truly accepted by you all here, his peers, in
an industry he truly loved," Kim Ledger said.
In other awards, Dustin Lance Black won the best original
screenplay Oscar for writing Milk, and Wall-E, telling of a
futuristic robot who finds love while on a polluted Earth, was best
animated film.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button walked off with two statuettes
for best art direction and makeup, and The Duchess won for best
costume design.
Man on Wire about a tightrope walker who dared to walk between New
York's Twin Towers was named best documentary.
In the night's one big surprise, Japanese movie Departures beat the
favourite, Israeli film Waltz with Bashir, for foreign language
film.
Jackman adds music
As the ceremony began, host Hugh Jackman put the show in full
musical mode with an opening routine that drew a standing ovation
from the star-studded crowd.
The number covered all five of the best film nominees and had
Jackman dancing hip hop, hitting high notes in a duet with Hathaway
for Frost/Nixon and climbing to the top rope of a fake wrestling
ring to crescendo his song with The Wrestler.
Later, he performed an old-style number in top hat and tails with
Beyonce, Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens.
Among the funnier acts was Ben Stiller doing an impersonation of
a wacky Joaquin Phoenix, who has quit acting to take up hip hop
music.
Jackman had been brought in to restore some fun to a show that has
seen a slide in television viewership in recent years as Academy
members have generally favoured dark dramas.
