Slumdog Millionaire rules Oscars with 8 prizes

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

Hollywood has met Bollywood at the Academy Awards, and the makers of Oscar champ "Slumdog Millionaire" hope it's a sign of future melding between the U.S. dream factory with its counterparts in India and elsewhere in the world.

A tale of hope amid adversity and squalor in Mumbai, "Slumdog Millionaire" came away with eight Oscars, including best picture and director for Danny Boyle. The low-budget production was a merger of India's brisk Bollywood movie industry, which provided most of the cast and crew, and the global marketing reach of Hollywood, which turned the film into a commercial smash, said British director Boyle.

The other top winners at Sunday's awards ceremony: Britain's Kate Winslet, best actress for the Holocaust-themed drama "The Reader"; Sean Penn, best actor for the title role of "Milk"; Australia's Heath Ledger, supporting actor for "The Dark Knight"; and Spain's Penelope Cruz, supporting actress for "Vicky Cristina Barcelona."

"Just to say to Mumbai, all of you who helped us make the film and all of those of you who didn't, thank you very much.," Boyle said.

The filmmakers accepted the best-picture trophy surrounded by both the adult professional actors who appeared among the cast of relative unknowns and some of the children the British director cast from the slums of Mumbai. The film follows the travails and triumphs of Jamal, an orphan who artfully dodges a criminal gang that mutilates children to make them more pitiable beggars. Jamal witnesses his mother's violent death, endures police torture and struggles with betrayal by his brother, while single-mindedly hoping to reunite with the lost love of his childhood.

Fate rewards Jamal, whose story unfolds through flashbacks as he recalls how he came to know the answers that made him a champion on the TV show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?"

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

Sean Penn (Milk)
Sean Penn won the best actor Oscar Sunday for his portrayal of a trailblazing gay politician in the biopic "Milk" and made an emotional plea for gay rights. It was the 48-year-old's second best actor Academy Award following his win for the 2003 drama "Mystic River."

DIRECTING

Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire)
"Slumdog Millionaire" has cruised to eight Academy Awards wins including best director for Britain's Danny Boyle. "You dwarf even this guy (gesturing to the
statuette). Thank you very much indeed," he said.

MUSIC (SONG) - (SCORE)

A.R. Rahman (Slumdog Millionaire)
In just one night, Indian film composer A.R. Rahman equaled the number of Oscars his fellow Indians had taken home during the first 80 years of the Academy Awards. The composer won Oscars for best original score and song, both from "Slumdog Millionaire."

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Man On Wire
The story of the French daredevil Philippe Petit, who performed a tight-rope walk between the twin towers of the World Trade Center won the Oscars’ best documentary prize. British film-maker James Marsh's "Man on Wire" recalls 's Petit’s extraordinary feat in 1974.

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)
Late Australian actor Heath Ledger won a rare posthumous Oscar as best supporting actor for his performance as The Joker in "The Dark Knight." Ledger became only the second performer in history to be awarded an Oscar posthumously.

WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)

Slumdog Millionaire
British screenwriter Simon Beaufoy won the Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award for "Slumdog Millionaire" This was the second Academy Award nomination for Beaufoy. He was previously nominated for "The Full Monty" in 1997.

BEST PICTURE

"Slumdog Millionaire"
The fairy tale of a Mumbai teen who overcomes poverty to find love and riches, completed its journey to Oscar gold by winning the best picture prize at the 81st Academy Awards. "As you can see, our film was a collaboration between hundreds of people," said producer Christian Colson.

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

Kate Winslet (The Reader)
British star Kate Winslet made it sixth time lucky at the Oscars, winning the best actress statuette after five previous nominations ended in defeat. Winslet,won for her haunting performance in "The Reader" as a former Nazi death camp guard.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

Departures
Japan's "Departures," depicting the esoteric practices of an undertaker who works to preserve a person's dignity even after death, added an Oscar to its awards. "The god of movies has happened to stop by and drop the Oscar right into our hands," director Yojiro Takita said.

SHORT FILM

Toyland
German film "Spielzeugland" (Toyland) has won the Oscar for best live action short film. "I hope this bald head here is gonna help all of us in our future career. Thank you very much," said director Jochen Alexander Freydank.

DOCUMENTARY SHORT

Smile Pinki
American filmmaker Megan Mylan won the best short documentary Oscar for her movie "Smile Pinki", a heartwarming tale of a poor Indian village girl whose cleft lip made her a social outcast. The documentary traces her journey from being ostracised to being treated like a normal girl after a surgery.

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Penelope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona)
Cruz became the first Spanish-born woman to win an acting Oscar, taking the best supporting actress award for her fiery, funny role in "Vicky Cristina Barcelona." She said her Oscar victory was a sign of changing times in American film for foreign actors.

WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)

Milk
"Milk" screenwriter Dustin Lance Black took home his first Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. In accepting his award, Black dutifully dispatched with the thank-yous and then - in keeping with the spirit of the film about gay rights activist Harvey Milk- got personal and political.