The 81st Oscar Gala – or commonly referred to as the Annual Academy Awards – commenced at yesterday night and came to an end this morning. In fact, according to European time, the so-called GMT, the ceremony started today at dawn and ended by 6 o’clock. Nevertheless, whichever Time Zone you may be, you must have been glued to the screen to watch the famous actors and actresses who were sitting with bated breath in the Kodak theatre to wait if their name would come out of the envelope.
In my opinion this year was a great year as there were quite a few movies for which we could go to the movies. The race for the small golden statuette was pretty fierce among the actors as well as the actresses. The outcome was not obvious as it was in the last couple of years. Slumdog Millionaire and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button received the most nominations – 10 and 13, respectively – however, only the story of the young Indian boy who becomes a contestant of the famous “Who wants to be a Millionaire?” could bring most of these nominations to reality. In the end Danny Boyle’s newest film received 8 statuettes whereas Fincher’s latest movie only got 3.
Kate Winslet could finally win the award as it was her sixth nomination. It was not expected but admirable as among the nominees there was Meryl Streep, who was nominated for the 15th time and had already won 3 Oscars. Sean Penn won the statuette for playing gay rights activist Harvey Milk in Gus Van Saint’s latest production. As it was expected, the posthumous Oscar went to Heath Ledger for his role of Joker in the year’s most successful blockbuster movie, The Dark Knight. The actor’s family went on the stage to take the award and say their thanks to the Academy. Penelope Cruz became the first Spanish actress to win the award – she played extraordinarily in a romantic comedy titled Vicky Christina Barcelona.
The complete list of the winners:
BEST MOTION PICTURE OF THE YEAR
Winner: Slumdog Millionaire (2008) - Christian Colson
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Winner: Sean Penn for Milk (2008/I)
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Winner: Kate Winslet for The Reader (2008)
BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN DIRECTING
Winner: Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM OF THE YEAR
Winner: Okuribito (2008)(Japan)
BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC WRITTEN FOR MOTION PICTURES, ORIGINAL SONG
Winner: Slumdog Millionaire (2008) - A.R. Rahman, Sampooran Singh Gulzar("Jai Ho")
BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC WRITTEN FOR MOTION PICTURES, ORIGINAL SCORE
Winner: Slumdog Millionaire (2008) - A.R. Rahman
BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN EDITING
Winner: Slumdog Millionaire (2008) - Chris Dickens
BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND
Winner: Slumdog Millionaire (2008) - Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke, Resul Pookutty
BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND EDITING
Winner: The Dark Knight (2008) - Richard King
BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN VISUAL EFFECTS
Winner: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) - Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton, Craig Barron
BEST DOCUMENTARY, SHORT SUBJECTS
Winner: Smile Pinki (2008) - Megan Mylan
BEST DOCUMENTARY, FEATURES
Winner: Man on Wire (2008) - James Marsh, Simon Chinn
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Winner: Heath Ledger for The Dark Knight (2008)
BEST SHORT FILM, LIVE ACTION
Winner: Spielzeugland (2007) - Jochen Alexander Freydank
BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN CINEMATOGRAPHY
Winner: Slumdog Millionaire (2008) - Anthony Dod Mantle
BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN MAKEUP
Winner: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) - Greg Cannom
BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN COSTUME DESIGN
Winner: The Duchess (2008) - Michael O'Connor
BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN ART DIRECTION
Winner: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) - Donald Graham Burt, Victor J. Zolfo
BEST SHORT FILM, ANIMATED
Winner: Maison en petits cubes, La (2008) - Kunio Katô
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM OF THE YEAR
Winner: WALL·E (2008) - Andrew Stanton
BEST WRITING, SCREENPLAY BASED ON MATERIAL PREVIOUSLY PRODUCED OR PUBLISHED
Winner: Slumdog Millionaire (2008) - Simon Beaufoy
BEST WRITING, SCREENPLAY WRITTEN DIRECTLY FOR THE SCREEN
Winner: Milk (2008/I) - Dustin Lance Black
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Winner: Penélope Cruz for Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)
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