The 81st Annual Academy Award Winners

What a show it was at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood for the 2009 Oscar ceremony! As predicted it was the year for "Slumdog Millionaire" with the film taking in eight awards including Best Picture of the Year. There were no dry eyes in the house when the late Heath Ledger won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role as the Joker in The Dark Knight. The award was accepted by his parents and sister, and their speech was quite moving. Other big winners were Sean Penn as Best Actor for his role in "Milk" and the lovely Kate Winslet finally took home a golden statue for Best Actress in "The Reader". (See below for a complete list of winners)

As promised the style of this year's award ceremony was a bit different, and I think it definitely worked. It was great to see the winnner's from years past introuducing the nominee's as a group, and it gave the show a much more intimate feel. Also, it was a great idea to speed things along by having one presenter hand out mulitple techinical awards that could be grouped in the same vein, instead of awarding each one individually.

In my opinion, I thought host Hugh Jackman gave a solid performance as host, and the musical numbers were certainly enteraining. Be sure to stay glued to PopCultureMadness.com for all the latest post-Oscar news, fashion, and memorable moments!

Winners List
BEST PICTURE "Slumdog Millionaire" (Fox Searchlight) A Celador Films
Production, Christian Colson, producer

LEAD ACTOR Sean Penn in "Milk" (Focus Features) LEAD 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