As expected, Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire made a clean sweep of the Academy Awards (Oscars) winning best film, best director, best adapted screenplay, best cinematography, best editing, best original score, best original song and best sound.
Sean Penn beat out sentimental favourite Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler) to take home the best actor award for his performance in Milk. Kate Winslet, as predicted, won best actress for The Reader. Penelope Cruz (Vicky Christina Barcelona) and the late Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight) won the supporting actor categories.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button won best make-up, art direction and visual effects.
Milk won the best original screenplay, The Dark Knight best sound editing, and The Duchess best costume design.
Japan’s Okuribito won the best foreign language film Oscar.
WALL-E won best animated feature, with Maison en Petits Cubes judged the best animated short.
Man on Wire won the best documentary feature, while Smile Pinki won the best short documentary film. Best live action short was Spielzeugland.
The 81st annual Academy Awards took place on 22 February in Los Angeles.
