'Slumdog' Sweeps and Boyle Bounces
A near perfect night for Danny Boyle's and Fox Searchlight's Mumbai masterpiece Slumdog Millionaire. Out of the nine categories it was nominated for, Slumdog walked away with eight oscars, including Best Director for Danny Boyle and Best Picture. Slumdog's only loss was to Chris Nolan's The Dark Knight for Sound Editing. Other big winners of the night include Kate Winslet for her role as the illerate Nazi guard Hannah Schmidt in The Reader, and Sean Penn for his portrayal as Gay Rights Activist and City Councilman Harvey Milk for the self-titled biopic Milk. Despite The Curious Case of Benjamin Button's 13 nominations coming into the night, the Brad Pitt/David Fincher helmed adaption of the F. Scott Fitzgerald short story only managed to walk away with three wins, all technical awards and two for the wizardry that allowed Pitt to play the backward aging Benjamin.
The spectacle of the 81st annual Academy Awards was a bit of a mixed note, as despite what I felt to be a welcomed nod to an earlier era of Hollywood, replacing stage comics with big band sounds and choreographed dance sequences, it all seemed to fall a bit flat with MC Hugh Jackman's natural comic flair not quite being up to scruff with Oscar hosting legends like Bob Hope, Johnny Carson or Billy Crystal. Though to be fair, for a kiwi action star, the guy can sing.
As usual, there were plenty of memorable moments throughout the night, including Ben Stiller's hilarious spoof of a gum-chewing, bearded Joaquin Phoenix, as well as Jack Blacks claim that he takes the money he gets from doing Dreamworks Animation films and bets it all on Pixar films. The acceptance speeches themselves were all fairly straight forward, although Danny Boyle did bounce several times on stage, later explaining he'd promised his children that if he ever won the award, he'd accept it in the style of Tigger.
So all in all, not a bad evening with the Academy, pre-show rants excluded. Be sure to check back at our Oscar section to see a full list of winners and to go in-depth on our post-show thoughts, including why Ben Burtt was ingloriously rooked.
Other notable wins of the evening include Heath Ledger for his role as the Joker in recently billion dollar box office titan, The Dark Knight, and a win for Penelope Cruz for her role as a spicy-tempered Spanish painter in Woody Allen's Vicky Christina Barcelona.