10:40AM, Feb 24, 2009
It was a great night for the Brits and the bookies as firm favourites Slumdog Millionaire and Kate Winslet took centre stage at the 81st Academy Awards. Read on for a full summary of the night.
For the full winners list click here.
On top of Best Film, crowd-pleaser Slumdog landed a further seven of its ten nominations, including Best Director for Danny Boyle who celebrated his win with a pogo-dance.
Odds-on Best Actress winner Winslet added to the theatricals with a huffing, puffing acceptance speech for The Reader - aided and abetted by her dad.
Despite heading the nominations list with thirteen, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button only scored three successes, all in the relatively low-profile categories of Art Direction, Make-Up and Visual Effects.
But the only genuine surprise came in the Best Actor ring where Sean Penn’s Milk defeated Mickey ‘The Wrestler’ Rourke. Form coming into the contest suggests it can’t have been far from a split decision.
Following the curious case of host Hugh Jackman’s distracting tan and opening vaudeville act (thankfully he did get better), the main event got underway with Penelope Cruz picking up Best Supporting Actress for Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona.
The award heralded a change from tradition, with all the acting nominees presented by a different previous winner from their category. Nice idea, but with the stage so crowded it left the audience wondering who they were supposed to be looking at.
And while the odd introduction worked (it’s not every day you see Robert De Niro and Sean Penn jesting in public), most viewers will be nursing over-clenched buttocks for weeks.
The first bone for Slumdog came via writer Simon Beaufoy, picking up Best Adapted Screenplay for his revision of Vikas Swarup’s novel Q&A.
“There are certain places in the universe you never imagine standing,” said Beaufoy on bettering his 1998 nomination for The Full Monty. “For me, it's the moon, the South Pole, the Miss World podium and here.”
Of course it wouldn’t have been an Oscar ceremony without a standing ovation, but when Heath Ledger’s family accepted the Best Supporting Actor award for The Dark Knight on his behalf, the occasion had its most touching, if inevitable, moment.
Ledger’s astonishing portrayal of The Joker makes him only the second actor to be awarded a posthumous Oscar, 33 years after Peter Finch’s Best Actor for Network.
But Slumdogs and Englishmen certainly had their day in the Oscar sun, with statuettes for Brits Anthony Dod Mantle (Best Cinematography) and Chris Dickens (Best Film Editing), and double success for Indian composer A.R. Rahman, who grabbed the spoils for both Original Score and Original Song (“Jai Ho”).
There was more British success elsewhere with documentary feature Man On Wire earning Cornish director James Marsh a stylish bookend to go with his recent BAFTA.
Costume designer Michael O’Connor also took home gold for queen and country with his stunning creations for The Duchess.
WALL.E maintained Pixar’s stranglehold on the Best Animated Film category but failed to convert any of its other five nominations.
With Milk and The Dark Knight doubling their tallies with awards for Original Screenplay and Sound Editing respectively, it meant that five-time nominees Doubt and Frost/Nixon both left empty-handed.
Overall, the 2009 ceremony raised as many questions as it answered.
Was it a good year for Oscar? Ask the audience. Was Sean’s Milk big enough to floor Mickey’s Wrestler? That’d be a 50:50. Is anyone up for Departures, the Best Foreign Language Film about a cellist who becomes an undertaker? Phone a friend.
While the debates rage, the success of Slumdog Millionaire does at least means that Chariots of Fire writer Colin Welland may now get his first good night’s sleep since proclaiming that “The British are coming!” back in 1982.
Better late than never, eh, Col?
