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

2009 Director’s Guild Awards - Slumdog Wins

The little indie film that nearly went straight to dvd won yet another best of the year award on Feb. 1 - thanks to Fox Searchlight, the popular and uplifting film actually got distributed worldwide.

[Film]
Director: Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire
Documentary: Ari Folman for Waltz With Bashir
Honorary Lifetime Membership: film critic Roger Ebert

[TV]
TV Drama Series: Dan Attias for The Wire
TV Film: Jay Roach for Recount (dir. of Austin Powers and Meet the Parents)
TV Comedy or Musical Series: Paul Feig for The Office
Reality Programming: Tony Kroll for America’s Next Top Model
Children’s: Amy Schatz for The Poetry Show

Normally the winner of the DGA award for director wins the Oscar – it only differed six times, ironically each time the DGA really had the better one, I thought

Slumdog Millionaire wins Producer's Guild Award

Producer’s Guild of America Awards 2009

[These pretty much echoed the Golden Globes and Critic's Choice awards]

Movie: Slumdog Millionaire
Animated Film: Wall-E
Documentary: Man On Wire

Long Form Television: John Adams
Episodic Comedy: 30 Rock
Episodic Drama: Mad Men
Non-Fiction TV: 60 Minutes
Live Entertainment/Competition TV: The Colbert Report

They should combine several of these shorter ones (SAG) and hold them all together, these plus the SAG's & CC's could be done in less than 3 hrs!

Screen Actors Guild Awards

The SAG awards results (held on Jan 25th). They give awards only to actors (the award is called The Actor®) - and the word "actress" is prohibited. They also give awards for ensemble acting, and for both film and tv.
Can't you just hear the kids at home: "Hey, mommy won The Actor" - "Wow! Is it Tom Cruise?"

2009 SAG Winners (career totals shown)

Film
Ensemble Cast: Slumdog Millionaire
Lead Actress: Meryl Streep (Doubt, 2nd, but 1st for film)
Lead Actor: Sean Penn (Milk, 1st)
Supporting Actress: Kate Winslet (The Reader, 2nd)
Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger (Dark Knight, 1st)
Stunt Ensemble, film: The Dark Knight

TV
Ensemble Cast, Comedy: 30 Rock
Lead Actress, Comedy: Tina Fey (30 Rock)
- Tina Fey – 2nd and 3rd awards
Lead Actor, Comedy: Alec Baldwin (30 Rock)
- Alec Baldwin – 3rd and 4th awards
Ensemble Cast, Drama: Mad Men
Lead Actor, Drama: Hugh Laurie (House, 2nd)
Lead Actress, Drama: Sally Field (Brothers & Sisters, 1st)
Actress, Movie or Miniseries: Laura Linney (John Adams, 1st)
Actor, Movie or Miniseries: Paul Giamatti (John Adams, 1st)
Stunt Ensemble, tv: Heroes

Lifetime Achievement: James Earl Jones (who has NO Oscars, while Denzel Washington has two, and Forrest Whitaker, Morgan Freeman, and Halle Berry one each; is there no justice in Oscar-ville? That's the greatest voice in film history we're talking about, and the 2nd greatest, John Houseman, also has an Oscar)

Quotes
“I can’t decide if I want to make out with Tony Hopkins or Diane Lane. Doesn’t Tony look great?” – Alec Baldwin

“My daughter puts on makeup and says ‘I look like Barack Obama’ – I don’t know where she got the idea that it’s cool to look like a politician. One day she’s gonna see 30 Rock on YouTube and ask ‘what do you mean, no residuals?’” – Tina Fey

“My dad was a stuntman, and I think you just saw some of his work underneath the horses.” – Sally Field (after a montage of great film stunts)

"Thanks for this ensemble award - some of these folks we just picked up off the street" - Jane Krakowski (30 Rock)

“In Genesis, it says that God shaped man from the dust of the earth and breathed life into his nostril; I don’t mean to embarrass any of you, but an actor does the same thing with a role.” – James Earl Jones

“I would just like to add, Paul Newman, somebody down here likes you.” – James Earl Jones (a reference to Newman’s first big film, “Somebody Up There Likes Me”)

“Something happened to me making this film, and I now notice that these statues have nice packages.” – Sean Penn

The official SAG site nominations and winners:
Screen Actors Guild


My Comments: I discovered 30 Rock on dvd, and love it. The beauty of the dvd's is 8 episodes per disk (about 3 hrs) with no commercials! Excellent writing, and Alec Baldwin is perfect, he's a terrific comic actor. Best thing on network tv right now, which isn't saying much at all unless you like amateur singing, amateur dancing, amateur's surviving, or people losing weight as a contest. How LOW have we sunk?

I read Bernard Schlink's book "The Reader" and liked it a lot. I like the SciFi premise of Benjamin Button, if done right these stories can be enchanting. My favorite so far is Wall-E, sadly, it's destined to win nothing but animation awards. I haven't seen Slumdog yet, but I look forward to it.

Too late for wagering! -- the Jman, El Presidenté

2009 Golden Globe Awards - Slumdog and Winslet Big Winners

Slumdog Millionaire won the big awards, and four total, but Kate Winslet won both Best Actress and Supporting Actress, her first two Golden Globe awards.

2009 Golden Globe Award Winners

[Movies]
Drama Film: Slumdog Millionaire
Comedy/Musical Film: Vicki Christina Barcelona
Director, Film: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
Actress, Mus/Comedy Film: Sally Hawkins, Happy Go
Actor, Mus/Comedy Film: Colin Farrell, In Bruges
Actress, Dramatic Film: Kate Winslet, Revolutionary Road
Actor, Dramatic Film: Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler
Supporting Actress, Film: Kate Winslet, The Reader
Supporting Actor, Film: Heath Ledger, Dark Knight
Animated Film: Wall-E (Pixar/Disney)
Foreign Language Film: Waltz With Bashir (Ari Kohlman?)
Screenplay, Film: Slumdog Millionaire (Simon Beaufoy)
Music Score, Film: Slumdog Millionaire (A.R. Ruhman)
Original Song, Film: Bruce Springsteen, “The Wrestler”, The Wrestler

[TV]
TV Drama Series: Mad Men
TV Comedy or Musical Series: 30 Rock
TV Film or Miniseries: John Adams (Tom Hanks, prod.)
Actor, TV Film or Miniseries: Paul Giamatti, John Adams
Actress, TV Film or Miniseries: Laura Linney, John Adams
Actress, TV Drama: Anna Paquin, True Blood
Actor, TV Drama: Gabriel Byrne, In Treatment
Actress, TV Comedy/Musical: Tina Fey, 30 Rock
Actor, TV Comedy/Musical: Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
Supporting Actress, TV: Laura Dern, Recount
Supporting Actor, TV: Tim Wilkinson, John Adams

Complete list of all nominations and winners, official site:
2009 Golden Globe Nominations

Who else agrees: Salma Hayak should be Miss Golden Globes until further notice!
...the Jman

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.