‘Slumdog Millionaire’ Sweeps The 81st Oscar Awards With 8 Awards

As expected “Slumdog Millionaire” was the night’s big winner taking eight of its ten nominations including Best Picture, and Best Director for Danny Boyle. In what was considered an upset to some Sean Penn, not Mickey Rourke took the Best Actor prize for his lead role in “Milk.” Kate Winslet took her early lifetime achievement award for her role in the unremarkable “The Reader” (as many have already griped, the award should have went for her turn in “Revolutionary Road”) and Penelope Cruz took the Best Supporting Actress trophy for her role in “Vicky Cristina Barcelona.” Another non-shocker, but very deserving award went to Heath Ledger for his spectacular turn in “The Dark Knight” as the chaotic Joker.

Although it lead with the most nominations (12) “The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button,” only took 3 awards, relegated only to the technical award categories. Nominated 8 times,”The Dark Knight,” took two awards including Best Sound Editing. Also tied with two awards was “Milk,” which also won the Best Original Screenplay award for writer Dustin Lance Black.

BEST PICTURE
WINNER: “Slumdog Millionaire”
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
“The Reader”
“Milk”
“Frost/Nixon”

BEST DIRECTOR
WINNER: Danny Boyle (“Slumdog Millionaire”)
Gus Van Sant (“Milk”)
Ron Howard (“Frost/Nixon”)
David Fincher (‘Benjamin Button’)
Stephen Daldry (“The Reader”)

BEST ACTRESS
WINNER: Kate Winslet (“The Reader”)
Angelina Jolie (“Changeling”)
Melissa Leo “(Frozen River”)
Anne Hathaway (“Rachel Getting Married”
Meryl Streep (“Doubt”)’

BEST ACTOR
WINNER: Sean Penn (“Milk”)
Mickey Rourke (“The Wrestler”)
Brad Pitt (“The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button”)
Frank Langella (“Frost/Nixon”)
Richard Jenkins (“The Visitor”)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
WINNER: Penelope Cruz (“Vicky Cristina Barcelona”)
Amy Adams (“Doubt”)
Viola Davis (“Doubt”)
Marisa Tomei (“The Wrestler”)
Taraji P Henson (‘Benjamin Button’)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
WINNER: Heath Ledger “(The Dark Knight”)
Phillip Seymour Hoffman (“Doubt”)
Michael Shannon (“Revolutionary Road”
Robert Downey Jr. (“Tropic Thunder”)
Josh Brolin (“Milk”)

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
WINNER: “Departures” (Japan)
“Waltz With Bashir” (Israel)
“Revanche” (Austria)
“The Class” (France)
“Der Baader Meinhof Komplex” (Germany)

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
WINNER: “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Screenplay by Simon Beaufoy
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.), Screenplay by Eric Roth, Screen story by Eric Roth and Robin Swicord
“Doubt” (Miramax), Written by John Patrick Shanley
“Frost/Nixon” (Universal), Screenplay by Peter Morgan
“The Reader” (The Weinstein Company), Screenplay by David Hare

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
WINNER: “Milk” (Focus Features), Written by Dustin Lance Black
“Frozen River” (Sony Pictures Classics), Written by Courtney Hunt
“Happy-Go-Lucky” (Miramax), Written by Mike Leigh
“In Bruges” (Focus Features), Written by Martin McDonagh
“WALL-E” (Walt Disney), Screenplay by Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon, Original story by Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
WINNER: “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Anthony Dod Mantle
“Changeling” (Universal), Tom Stern
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.), Claudio Miranda
“The Dark Knight” (Warner Bros.), Wally Pfister
“The Reader” (The Weinstein Company), Chris Menges and Roger Deakins

BEST EDITING
WINNER: “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Chris Dickens
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.), Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall
“The Dark Knight” (Warner Bros.), Lee Smith
“Frost/Nixon” (Universal), Mike Hill and Dan Hanley
“Milk” (Focus Features), Elliot Graham

BEST SCORE
WINNER: “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), A.R. Rahman
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.),Alexandre Desplat
“Defiance” (Paramount Vantage), James Newton Howard
“Milk” (Focus Features), Danny Elfman
“WALL-E” (Walt Disney), Thomas Newman

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
WINNER: “Jai Ho” from “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Music by A.R. Rahman, Lyric by Gulzar
“Down to Earth” from “WALL-E” (Walt Disney), Music by Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman, Lyric by Peter Gabriel
“O Saya” from “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Music and Lyric by A.R. Rahman andMaya Arulpragasam

BEST ANIMATED FILM
WINNER: “Wall-E”
“Bolt”
“Kung Fu Panda”

BEST ART DIRECTION
WINNER: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
“Changeling”
“The Duchess”
“Revolutionary Road”
“The Dark Knight”

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
WINNER: “The Duchess” (Paramount Vantage, Pathé and BBC Films), Michael O’Connor
“Australia” (20th Century Fox), Catherine Martin
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.), Jacqueline West
“Milk” (Focus Features), Danny Glicker
“Revolutionary Road”

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
WINNER: “Man on Wire” (Magnolia Pictures), A Wall to Wall Production, James Marsh and Simon Chinn
“The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)” (Cinema Guild), A Pandinlao Films Production, Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath
“Encounters at the End of the World” (THINKFilm and Image Entertainment), A Creative Differences Production, Werner Herzog and Henry Kaiser
“The Garden” A Black Valley Films Production, Scott Hamilton Kennedy
“Trouble the Water” (Zeitgeist Films), An Elsewhere Films Production, Tia Lessin and Carl

BEST MAKEUP
WINNER: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.), Greg Cannom
“The Dark Knight” (Warner Bros.), John Caglione, Jr. and Conor O’Sullivan
“Hellboy II: The Golden Army” (Universal), Mike Elizalde and Thom Floutz

BEST ANIMATED SHORT
WINNER: “La Maison en Petits Cubes” A Robot Communications Production, Kunio Kato
“Lavatory – Lovestory” A Melnitsa Animation Studio and CTB Film Company Production, Konstantin Bronzit
“Oktapodi” (Talantis Films) A Gobelins, L’école de l’image Production, Emud Mokhberi and Thierry Marchand
“Presto” (Walt Disney) A Pixar Animation Studios Production, Doug Sweetland
“This Way Up”, A Nexus Production, Alan Smith and Adam Foulkes

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT
WINNER: “Spielzeugland (Toyland)” A Mephisto Film Production, Jochen Alexander Freydank
“Auf der Strecke (On the Line)” (Hamburg Shortfilmagency), An Academy of Media Arts Cologne Production, Reto Caffi
“Manon on the Asphalt” (La Luna Productions), A La Luna Production, Elizabeth Marre and Olivier Pont
“New Boy” (Network Ireland Television), A Zanzibar Films Production, Steph Green and Tamara Anghie
“The Pig” An M & M Production, Tivi Magnusson and Dorte Høgh

BEST SOUNDS EDITING
WINNER: “The Dark Knight” (Warner Bros.), Richard King
“Iron Man” (Paramount and Marvel Entertainment), Frank Eulner and Christopher Boyes
“Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Tom Sayers
“WALL-E” (Walt Disney), Ben Burtt and Matthew Wood
“Wanted” (Universal),Wylie Stateman

BEST SOUND MIXING
WINNER: “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke and Resul Pookutty
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.), David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce and Mark Weingarten
“The Dark Knight” (Warner Bros.), Lora Hirschberg, Gary Rizzo and Ed Novick
“WALL-E” (Walt Disney),Tom Myers, Michael Semanick and Ben Burtt
“Wanted” (Universal), Chris Jenkins, Frank A. Montaño and Petr Forejt

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
WINNER: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.), Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton and Craig Barron
“The Dark Knight” (Warner Bros.), Nick Davis, Chris Corbould, Tim Webber and Paul Franklin
“Iron Man” (Paramount and Marvel Entertainment), John Nelson, Ben Snow, Dan Sudick and Shane Mahan

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
WINNER: “Smile Pinki” A Principe Production, Megan Mylan
“The Conscience of Nhem En” A Farallon Films Production, Steven Okazaki
“The Final Inch” Vermilion Films in association with Google.org, Irene Taylor Brodsky and Tom Grant
“The Witness – From the Balcony of Room 306” A Rock Paper Scissors Production, Adam Pertofsky and Margaret Hyde