81st Academy Award Winners

Tonight, at the 81st Academy Awards, a few surprises took place.

Hugh Jackman was no Billy Crystal or Bob Hope, but he didn't do too badly. The hilarious song he did with Best Actress nominee Anne Hathaway- who did her best Richard Nixon- was pretty snappy.

The odds-on favorite, Slumdog Millionaire, a film about a poverty-raised teaboy who goes on a game show to find his lost love, took home eight Oscars, including Best Picture, Directing, and Best Adapted Screenplay. It took home several other Oscars as well.

Kate Winslet took home the Best Actress in a Leading Oscar for her role as a thirty-something German woman whose teenage lover is unaware of her dark past in The Reader.

Sean Penn upset the odds-on favorite Mickey Rourke, to take home the Best Actor Oscar for his role as the late San Francisco city supervisor Harvey Milk in Milk. Rourke had won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for the drama The Wrestler. Penn, ever the activist, admonished those who voted for the California Proposition 8 last November, and praised President Barack Obama and fellow (Best Actor) nominee Rourke in his acceptance speech.

The late Heath Ledger won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role as the Joker in The Dark Knight. Ledger, who died a year ago, becomes the second posthumous winner (after Peter Finch, who won the Best
Actor Oscar for Network). Ledger's family accepted in his honor and memory.

Penelope Cruz captured best supporting actress honors for her role in Vicki Cristina Barcelona. In the screenplay categories, the biopic on the latest San Francisco city supervisor Harvey Milk, titled appropriately enough, Milk, won the best original screenplay Oscar. Dustin Lance Black, who wrote the script said in an impassioned speech to the gay, lesbian bisexual, and questioning population that "you are beautiful, wonderful...and I promise you, you will have equal rights...across this great nation of ours."

WALL-E captured the Oscar for best animated feature, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button wins for Art Direction.

For the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, Departures, out of Japan took home the honor.

Other winners include:
Achievement in Cinematography: Slumdog Millionaire
Achievement in Makeup: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Best Live Action Short: Spielzeugland (Toyland)
Achievement in Costume: The Duchess
Best Animated Short: Le Maison en Petit Cubes
Documentary Short: Smile Pinki
Documentary Feature: Man on a Wire
Visual Effects: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Achievement in Sound Editing: The Dark Knight
Achievement in Sound Mixing: Slumdog Millionaire
Achievement in Editing: Slumdog Millionaire
Best Original Score: Slumdog Millionaire, A.R. Rahman, composer
Best Original Song: " Jai Ho", Slumdog Millionaire


Jerry Lewis received an honorary Oscar- the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award- for his comedic contributions to the film world and his work for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

Monday, in The Trash Bash, I'll look at the highlights- and low blows- of Oscar night.

Produced in Association with The Trash Bash
Copyright (C) 2009 by Darren W. Alexander. All Rights Reserved. Academy Awards and Oscar are the registered trademarks, and Copyright (C) 2009 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences