Brits Dominate The Oscars

8 months ago 23rd Feb 10:31

Last night Hollywood belong to Britain as the likes of Slumdog Millionaire and Kate Winslet swept to Oscar victories.

The small independent movie that struggled to get off the ground and almost went straight to DVD took home eight gongs including Best Picture and Best Director for Bury born Danny Boyle.

The rags to riches film has dominated the award circuit picking up gongs at the Baftas, Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild and was the favourite to scoop the major awards last night.

Made a tenth of the budget of it's rival The Curious Case of Benjamin Button it was a bad night for the Brad Pitt film as it took home just two awards out of it's thirteen nominations.

It was a double celebration for Boyle as he picked up Best Director as he jumped up and down on the stage before going on to say: "My kids are too old to remember this now but, when they were much younger, I swore to them if this miracle ever happened, I would receive it in the spirit of Tigger from Winnie the Pooh, and that's what that was"

At long last Kate Winslet finally got her hands on an Oscar after taking home the Best Actress award for her performance in The Reader.

As she collected her award the actress said: "I'd be lying if I haven't made a version of this speech before. I think I was probably eight years old and staring into the bathroom mirror and this would have been a shampoo bottle. Well it's not a shampoo bottle now."

There was a shock in the Best Actor category as Sean Penn walked away with the award for his performance in Milk, Mickey Rourke had been the favourite for his comeback performance in The Wrestler.

The pair had shared the awards in recent weeks but Penn took the Screen Actors Guild Award, which is voted for by his peers and actors make up the biggest section of voters at the Oscars.

Penelope Cruz and Heath Ledger were rock solid favourite to pick up the supporting gongs and they didn't disappoint.

Ledger's performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight has been the toast of Hollywood in recent weeks and his family picked up the award on the actor's behalf.

His father said as he collected the award: This award tonight would have humbly validated Heath's quiet determination to be truly accepted by you all here, his peers within an industry he so loved."

Fill List of Winners: 

Best Picture

"Slumdog Millionaire" (Fox Searchlight) A Celador Films Production, Christian Colson, producer

Best Actor

Sean Penn in "Milk" (Focus Features)

Best Actress

Kate Winslet in "The Reader" (The Weinstein Company)

Director

Danny Boyle for "Slumdog Millionaire" (Fox Searchlight)

Foreign Language Film

"Departures" - Japan (Regent Releasing) A Departures Film Partners production

Supporting Actor

Heath Ledger in "The Dark Knight" (Warner Bros)

Supporting Actress

Penelope Cruz in "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" (The Weinstein Company)

Original Screenplay

Dustin Lance Black for "Milk" (Focus Features)

Adapted Screenplay

Simon Beaufoy for "Slumdog Millionaire" (Fox Searchlight)

Animated Feature

Andrew Stanton for "WALL-E" (Walt Disney)

Animated Short Film

Kunio Kato for "La Maison en Petits Cubes" (A Robot Communications Production)

Art Direction

Donald Graham Burt for art direction and Victor J. Zolfo for set decoration on "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount and Warner Bros)

Costume Design

Michael O'Connor for "The Duchess" (Paramount Vantage, Pathe and BBC Films)

Makeup

Greg Cannom for "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount and Warner Bros)

Cinematography

Anthony Dod Mantle for "Slumdog Millionaire" (Fox Searchlight)

Live Action Short Firm

Jochen Alexander Freydank for "Spielzeugland (Toyland)", a Mephisto Film production

Documentary Feature

James Marsh and Simon Chinn for "Man on Wire" (Magnolia Pictures) A Wall to Wall production

Documentary Short

Megan Mylan for "Smile Pinki", a Principle production

Visual Effects

Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton and Craig Barron for "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount and Warner Bros)

Sound Editing

Richard King for "The Dark Knight" (Warner Bros)

Sound Mixing

Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke and Resul Pookutty for "Slumdog Millionaire" (Fox Searchlight)

Film Editing

Chris Dickens for "Slumdog Millionaire" (Fox Searchlight)

Original Score

A.R. Rahman for "Slumdog Millionaire" (Fox Searchlight)

Original Song

"Jai Ho" from "Slumdog Millionaire" (Fox Searchlight), music by A.R. Rahman, lyrics by Gulzar

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw