Slumdog Millionaire Wins Best Pic, 8 Oscars®

2009 Oscar® Winner Count:
Slumdog 8, Benjamin Button 3, Milk 2, Dark Knight 2

Picture: Slumdog Millionaire
Director: Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire)
Actress: Kate Winslet (The Reader)
Actor: Sean Penn (Milk)
Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz (Vicky Christina Barcelona)
Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger (Dark Knight)

Original Screenplay: Dustin Lance Black (Milk)
Adapted Screenplay: Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire)
Cinematography: Slumdog Millionaire
Film Editing: Slumdog Millionaire
Art Direction: Benjamin Button
Costume Design: The Dutchess

Music Score: Slumdog Millionaire (A.R. Rahman)
Song: "Jai Ho" (Slumdog Millionaire - A.R. Rahman/Gulzar)
Special Visual Effects: Benjamin Button
Sound Mixing: Slumdog Millionaire
Sound Editing: Dark Knight
Makeup: Benjamin Button

Foreign Language Film: Departures (Japan)
Documentary, feature: Man on Wire (James Marsh)
Documentary, short: Smile Pinki (Megan Mylan)
Animated feature: Wall-E (Andrew Stanton)
Animated short: la maison en petit cubes
Live action short: Spielzeugland (Toyland), Germany

Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award: Jerry Lewis (whom, we were told, also holds a patent for a camera assist device)

Highlights of the night:
1 - The subject of documentary winner Man on Wire balanced the director's Oscar on his chin after making a lucky coin from German director Werner Herzog 'disappear'
2 - Kate Winslet's dad whistling in the audience so she'd know his location, and he was a cool dude in a wide brimmed Hendrix looking felt hat!

POLL RESULTS: Slumdog easily won our Oscar poll, while Dark Knight won 'should have been nominated'. Interesting to me, since Wall-E has won 36 awards this year, and should have been up for best.

Slumdog Millionaire Ready to Complete the Awards Sweep

Frida Pinto in Slumdog Millionaire

This year's feel good film, Slumdog Millionaire, directed by Danny Boyle, is set to complete a sweep of this year's major film awards on Sunday, Feb. 22nd at the Oscars® ("no wagering").


Here's the new link for Slumdog Millionaire at the Internet Movie Database:
Slumdog Millionaire at IMDB



(Frida Pinto, rt., gets my vote for whatever she's got)

So far this year, Slumdog has won these best film awards:

• BAFTA (British Acad.) (won 7 of 11 nominations)
  
• Director's Guild Award
  
• Producer's Guild Award
  
• Golden Globe Award
  
• Screen Actor's Guild Ensemble Acting Award
  
• Critic's Choice Award
  
• National Board of Review
  

Meanwhile, non-nominee for picture Wall-E has won 35 awards so far this year, most for animated feature, but a few for best picture and song (Peter Gabriel's "Down to Earth"). Here's a link to all its awards at IMDB:
Wall-E Awards

Slumdog Millionaire wins Critics Choice Award

Director Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire won the Critic's Choice award as Best Picture, Boyle won director and the film won five awards overall at Thursday nights Critic's Choics awards for 2008 films.

Best Picture: Slumdog Millionaire
Best Director: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
Best Action Picture: The Dark Knight
Best Comedy Picture: Tropic Thunder
Best Animated Picture: Wall-E
Best Actor: Sean Penn, Milk
Best Actress: (tie) Meryl Streep, Doubt; Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married
Supp. Actor: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
Supp. Actress: Kate Winslet, The Reader
Best Documentary: Man on Wire
Best Foreign Film: Waltz with Bashir - this animated film about Palestine took four years to complete and the director had three kids while working on it!
Best TV Movie: John Adams - before presenting this award, Sarah Silverman said "because we all know the best films are being made for tv"

Here's a link to all nominations and winners:
2009 Critics Choice Awards

Note: When Dustin Hoffman went to announce Best Picture, he first said "it's a three-way tie!" -- then "Just kidding...."

Heath Ledger may become the second posthumous Oscar winner for acting, after Peter Finch (Network - "I'm mad a hell!") Here is his first award; personally, I prefer Jack Nicholson, the Joker was a joker, remember, not a morbid sadistic psycho; Ledger was better in Brokeback Mountain, imo, even though that's my least favorite Larry McMurtry (Last Picture Show, Terms of Endearment, Lonesome Dove, Comanche Moon) screenplay.