KATHMANDU, Feb 23: Brit Danny Boyle´s rag-to-riches fairytale story Slumdog Millionaire strike eight golds and won the best movie award to sweep the floors of the Oscar night at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood, Los Angeles. [break]
South Indian musician AR Rahman won two awards for the Millionaire in the best original score and the best song. The movie was nominated for 10 awards. This has to be one of the most jubilant days for a billion Indians. Though few were staunchly against the negative portrayal of Mumbai slums, the movie has received rave reviews and has become an instant viewer´s choice after it was released in December 2008, dodging a near straight-to-DVD release.
Slumdog Millionaire is a cutesy sentimental movie and revolves around two brothers and the ordeals they go through in the slums of Mumbai. The movie immaculately depicts the story of life, vigor and humor, as well as sorrow and pain in the booming city of Mumbai. A little too sappy and maudlin at times, the movie has a mushy cliché happy ending hitting right at the spot for the mawkish hearts. However, beneath that Bollywood, the film had intense Hollywood most tried and trusted plot lines and the triumph of an underdog made this movie beat all odds, as in the movie.Steven Spielberg presented the award to an immense team of Slumdog cast, including Bollywood actor Irfan Khan and Anil Kapoor, along with the unknown until recently lead actors Dev Patel and Freida Pinto. The child actors from the slums in the movie were also present at the Academy Awards ceremony.
Best Director Danny Boyle has fantastically captured the essence of the city showing the impoverishment, politics, corrupt administration, betrayal and other hardships along with love and everything you find in the streets of Mumbai. He outshoned veterans like Ron Howard (Frost/Nixon) and new age directors like Gus Van Sant (Milk), Stephen Daldry (The Reader) and David Fincher (Benjamin Button).
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by David Fincher was the biggest disappointment of the night. Nominated for thirteen awards, the movie went back home with only four, the visual effects, art direction and makeup, probably for turning Brad Pitt into an old ugly man.For the best actor Sean Penn outdid Mickey Rourke. Rourke (The Wrestler) was battling it out with Penn (Milk) on a neck to neck competition. 56-year old Rourke was a comeback kid and played an over-the-hill wrestling star with a comeback and gives a tender, heart-breaking performance. But the perpetual Oscar darling Sean Penn had a slight upper hand for his vivid portrayal of gay rights political activist Harvey Milk, in Milk. This was Penn´s second Oscar. He is famous as an anti establishment rebel darling and a Hollywood outsider despite his success and critical acclaim.
Michael Douglas, Adrien Brody, Anthony Hopkins, Sir Ben Kingsley and Robert De Niro presented the award and De Niro even called Penn, jokingly, a “commie homo-loving sons of guns".
We did not doubt Kate Winslet and she won the best actress for her amazing performance in The Reader (and similarly one for un-nominated Revolutionary Road). She was good in The Reader, a tragically beautiful movie on a former concentration camp guard, played by Winlset, in the Holocaust movie. This was her sixth nomination and more than deserved it. Also, the magic of Hollywood whizkid Harvey Weinstein’s marketing worked. But for now, we believe she won because she was good. Period.
Shirley MacLaine, last year´s winner Marion Cotillard, Halle Berry, Nicole Kidman and Sophia Loren presented the award to teary Kate Winslet.
Heath Ledger won his posthumous award in the best supporting actor category for the movie The Dark Knight. His role as dark, unfunny and splendidly scary Joker in the batman movie well deserved the award and could merely be snubbed as a sympathy vote. He would have won the award even if he was alive. Ledger´s awards was presented by Kevin Kline, Alan Arkin, Joel Grey, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Christopher Walken. And his family received the statuette.Ledger died in January 2008 on an accidental overdose of prescription drugs. This talented actor was nominated for the best actor in 2006 for his role in Brokeback Mountain but was snubbed. Only two out of six posthumous nominations have went on to win the award. Peter Finch was another thespain who won a posthumous.
Best supporting actress went to well-deserving Spanish actress Penelope Cruz, who was nominated for her role as temtptious artist in a Woody Allen movie Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Cruz lost to Helen Mirren (The Queen) in 2006 and well deserved this award “even if we didn´t understand every word you said”. Anjelica Huston, Tilda Swinton, Eva Marie Saint, Whoopi Goldberg and Goldie Hawn presented the award to Cruz.Departures from Japan disappointed The Class from France and Israelite Waltz with Bashir to win the best foreign movie awards.
The best original screenplay went to Dustin Black Long for a biopic Milk. The movie is based on a California based on a gay political activist Harvey Milk, a very Oscar material. He also won the Writer´s Guild Award earlier this year for the same movie.
The award was presented by very funny woman Tina Fay and evergreen funny guy Steve Martin who were genuinely and rousingly amusing. They veered off a perfect jibe at Hollywood scientologists saying, “Don´t say anything about our made-up religion”. Couple of Emmy awards winner Fay was super famous for her last year´s impersonation of American republican vice-president candidate Sarah Palin. Martin has hosted the Oscars twice before.
The award for best adapted screenplay goes to Simon Beaufoy for Slumdog Millionaire. Beaufoy was nice enough to offer thanks to the director Danny Boyle and producer Christian Colson who he termed "the other two musketeers".
The best animated feature was for Pixar´s terrific robot romance WALL-E. Very few people should have an issue with that, apart from Kung-Fu Panda cast and director. The best animated short was handed to Kunio Kato for La Maison en Petits Cubes.Both the Original score and song went to A R Rahman for Slumdog Millionaire. Need we say more?
Natalie Portman was accompanied by Ben Stiller in a guise of Joaquin Phoenix, sporting a Unabomber beard, looking dazed and confused. They presented the Oscar for cinematography. Anthony Dod Mantle won the award for Slumdog Millionaire. Mantle is known as one of the world´s greatest cinematographers of the present time. In the Boyle movie, he has been able to capture the essense of India, and of Mumbai, the vibrant, sad, and tensed city and has brilliantly shown it the way Bollywood has never been able to portray.
The best documentary was a tough one. But James Marsh´s marvellous Man on Wire won the non-fiction beating legendary Werner Herzog or even the makers of camcorder Katrina masterpiece. Man on Wire is about the French high-wire daredevil Philippe Petit.No brainer the best visuals went to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. If anyone can make Brad Pitt look ugly and old, they deserve the award. The Art Direction also went to Benjamin Button, along with the best makeup. Again, for making Brad Pitt look super young and super old in the same movie, within 2 and half hours.
The award for best sound mixing went to Slumdog Millionaire. Michael O´Connor scooped the costume design award for his work on The Duchess. The live action short went to Spielzeugland, which means “Toyland”.The Dark Knight won it´s second for the night with best sound editing. Richard King did the sound for the Christopher Nolan movie.
And below is the final list of all winners:
1. Best Picture
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
Milk
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire
2. Best Actor
Richard Jenkins for The Visitor
Frank Langella for Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn for Milk
Brad Pitt for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke for The Wrestler
3. Best Actress
Anne Hathaway for Rachel Getting Married
Angelina Jolie for Changeling
Melissa Leo for Frozen River
Meryl Streep for Doubt
Kate Winslet for The Reader
4. Best Supporting Actor
Josh Brolin for Milk
Robert Downey Jr for Tropic Thunder
Philip Seymour Hoffman for Doubt
Heath Ledger for The Dark Knight
Michael Shannon for Revolutionary Road
5. Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams for Doubt
Penelope Cruz for Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis for Doubt
Taraji P Henson for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Marisa Tomei for The Wrestler
6. Best Director
David Fincher for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Ron Howard for Frost/Nixon
Gus Van Sant for Milk
Stephen Daldry for The Reader
Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire
7. Best Foreign Film
The Baader Meinhof Complex, Germany
The Class, France
Departures, Japan
Revanche, Austria
Waltz With Bashir, Israel
8. Best Adapted Screenplay
Eric Roth and Robin Swicord for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
John Patrick Shanley for Doubt
Peter Morgan for Frost/Nixon
David Hare for The Reader
Simon Beaufoy for Slumdog Millionaire
9. Best Original Screenplay
Courtney Hunt for Frozen River
Mike Leigh for Happy-Go-Lucky
Martin McDonagh for In Bruges
Dustin Lance Black for Milk
Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon and Pete Docter for WALL-E
10. Best Animated Feature Film
Bolt
Kung Fu Panda
WALL-E
11. Best Art Direction
Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
The Duchess
Revolutionary Road
12. Best Cinematography
Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire
13. Best Sound Mixing
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Slumdog Millionaire
WALL-E
Wanted
14. Best Sound Editing
The Dark Knight
Iron Man
Slumdog Millionaire
WALL-E
Wanted
15. Best Original Score
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Alexandre Desplat
Defiance, James Newton Howard
Milk, Danny Elfman
Slumdog Millionaire, A R Rahman
WALL-E, Thomas Newman
16. Best Original Song
Down to Earth from WALL-E, Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman
Jai Ho from Slumdog Millionaire, A R Rahman and Gulzar
O Saya from Slumdog Millionaire, A R Rahman and Maya Arulpragasam
17. Best Costume
Australia
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Duchess
Milk
Revolutionary Road
18. Best Documentary Feature
The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)
Encounters at the End of the World
The Garden
Man on Wire
Trouble the Water
19. Best Documentary (short subject )
The Conscience of Nhem En
The Final Inch
Smile Pinki
The Witness
From the Balcony of Room 306
20. Best Film Editing
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Frost/Nixon
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire
21. Best Makeup
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
22. Best Animated Short Film
La Maison en Petits Cubes
Lavatory Lovestory
Oktapodi
Presto
This Way Up
23. Best Live Action Short Film
Auf der Strecke (On the Line)
Manon on the Asphalt
New Boy
The Pig
Spielzeugland (Toyland)
24. Best Visual Effects
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Iron Man
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