23 February, 2009
By Jeremy KaySource: Screen Daily
The widely expected success eclipsed The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, which entered the night as the most nominated picture with 13 nods and left with a trio of prizes for art direction, visual effects and make-up.”When we started out we had no stars, no power or muscle to do what we wanted,” Slumdog Millionaire’s producer Christian Colson of Celador Films said. “But what we had was a script that had mad love and a genius director…and we had partners in Film4, Pathe and Fox Searchlight.”In the acting honours Kate Winslet made it sixth time lucky as she finally took the best lead actress Oscar for The Reader and thanked a litany of collaborators including the picture’s late producers Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack.Sean Penn pipped Mickey Rourke at the post and took the second Oscar of his career for his portrayal of Harvey Milk in Milk. “You commie, homo-loving sons of guns!” Penn told the crowd, before making an earnest plea for equal rights that tipped a hat to Hollywood’s wave of revulsion over last year’s anti-gay marriage vote on Prop 8 in California. He rounded off his speech with a generous tribute to his stiffest competition this season: “Mickey Rourke rises again and he is my brother.”As with the lead acting awards, both the supporting actor and actresscategories were introduced by a convocation of former winners who paidtribute to the night’s nominees. Penelope Cruz took the first award ofthe night for her role as the force of nature Maria Elena in WoodyAllen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona while Ledger’s parents and sisteraccepted his supporting actor following his posthumous win for playingThe Joker in The Dark Knight.”Thank you, Woody, for trusting me with this beautiful character,” an emotional Cruz said. “Thank for you having written over all these years some of the greatest characters for women. And I cannot talk about great female characters without thanking my friend Pedro Almodovar for having made me part of so many of his adventures.”
The only real surprise of the night came when Yojiro Takita’s Japanese
entry Departures trumped Ari Folman’s Israeli contender Waltz With
Bashir and Laurent Cantet’s French Palme D’Or winner The Class to take
the foreign language award. “Yes, it was hard to believe and it was
unbelievable,” Takita said backstage in arguably the greatest
understatement of the night.Dustin Lance Black gave an impassioned speech upon receiving theoriginal screenplay Oscar for Milk. “I wanna thank my mom, who hasalways loved me for who I am even when there was pressure not to,” hesaid. “But most of all, if Harvey had not been taken from us 30 yearsago, I think he’d want me to say to all of the gay and lesbian kidsout there tonight who have been told that they are less than by theirchurches, by the government or by their families, that you arebeautiful, wonderful creatures of value and that no matter what anyonetells you, God does love you and that very soon, I promise you, youwill have equal rights federally, across this great nation of ours.”Slumdog Millionaire’s victory roll began half an hour into the showwhen Simon Beaufoy collected the adapted screenplay prize. Beaufoythanked his “two other Musketeers” Danny [Boyle, director] andChristian [Colson, producer]. His success was followed later in theshow by Anthony Dod Mantle for cinematography and Ian Tapp, RichardPryke and Resul Pookutty for sound mixing.Andrew Stanton collected the best animated feature for Wall-E, and inso doing delivered a timely response to a wonderful jibe by Jack Blackearlier in the show. When asked by fellow presenter Jennifer Anistonhow he made his money, Black, who provided the lead voice in the Oscar-nominated Kung Fu Panda, said: “I do one DreamWorks movie, and then take all the money from the movie, and bring it to the Oscars, and bet it on Pixar.”James Marsh’s Man On Wire took the documentary prize and invited thepicture’s star Philippe Petit on to the stage. The impish high-wirewalker duly obliged and paid brief tribute to documentary nomineeWerner Herzog before treating the audience to a disappearing cointrick and juggling the Oscar on his chin.The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button did well in the craft categories, asGreg Cannom took the make-up prize; the duo of Donald Graham Burt and Victor J Zolfo took the art direction prize; and Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton and Craig Barron won for visual effects.Michael O’Connor won best costume for his work on The Duchess. The Dark Knight’s Richard King collected the Oscar for sound editing.Seeking to recapture former glories and arrest a worrying ratingsslide, Oscar show producers Bill Condon and Laurence Mark turned the81st Annual Academy Awards into a musical bonanza. Host Hugh Jackman burst into a song and dance routine from the get-go and returned to duet with Beyonce, with a little help from Zac Efron from High School Musical and Mamma Mia!’s Amanda Seyfried and Dominic Cooper. Queen Latifah sang in soft accompaniment to the In Memoriam montage.Overall the show didn’t deviate much from previous incarnations andfailed to come in at the trim three hours as predicted, taking threeand a half to get through business. Condon and Mark commissioned JuddApatow to make a short film that riffed on Pineapple Express and theshow producers brought in several young presenters, among themTwilight’s Robert Pattinson, as well as Seyfried and Alicia Keys.Screenplay presenters Tina Fey and Steve Martin delivered one of thehighlights of the show with a droll stand-up routine.In the short film categories, Kunio Kato’s La Maison En Petits Cubeswon the animated prize, while Jochen Alexander Freydank received hisaward for his best short film Spielzeugland from Seth Rogen, JamesFranco and Janus Kaminski, who moments earlier had appeared inApatow’s comedic short. Megan Mylan won the short documentary award for Smile Pinki.Eddie Murphy presented Jerry Lewis with the Jean Hersholt HumanitarianAward and claimed the veteran performer “has had a huge influence onmy career.”Winners of the 81st Annual Academy AwardsFor Screen reviews please click on link.Best PictureSlumdog Millionaire, Christian Colson (producer)Best ActorSean Penn, MilkBest ActressKate Winslet, The ReaderBest DirectorDanny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
Best Foreign Language Film
Departures (Japan)
Best Supporting ActressPenelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina BarcelonaBest Supporting ActorHeath Ledger, The Dark KnightBest DocumentaryMan On Wire, James Marsh and Simon ChinnBest Original ScreenplayDustin Lance Black, MilkBest Adapted ScreenplaySimon Beaufoy, Slumdog MillionaireBest Animated FeatureWall-E, Andrew StantonBest Animated ShortLa Maison En Petits Cubes, Kunio KatoArt DirectionThe Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, Donald Graham Burt (art direction) and Victor J. Zolfo (set decoration)Costume DesignThe Duchess, Michael O’ConnorMake-upThe Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, Greg CannomCinematographySlumdog Millionaire, Anthony Dod MantleBest Live Action ShortSpielzeugland (Toyland), Jochen Alexander FreydankBest Documentary Short SubjectSmile Pinki, Megan MylanVisual EffectsThe Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton and Craig BarronSound EditingThe Dark Knight, Richard KingSound MixingSlumdog Millionaire, Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke and Resul PookuttyFilm EditingSlumdog Millionaire, Chris DickensOriginal ScoreSlumdog Millionaire, A.R. RahmanOriginal Song
Jai Ho from Slumdog Millionaire, music by A.R. Rahman and lyrics by Gulzar
