Slumdog Sweeps Oscars

LOS ANGELES: Slumdog Millionaire reigned supreme at last night’s Academy Awards, taking home eight statuettes, including best picture and best director for Danny Boyle.

The Celador Films Production, distributed by Fox Searchlight, a rags-to-riches tale set in Mumbai, also nabbed the adapted screenplay award for Simon Beaufoy, and scored nods in the sound mixing and film editing categories, while A.R. Rahman took home awards for original score and original song (Jai Ho).

In the performance categories, Sean Penn edged out Mickey Rourke to take home the lead actor Oscar for Milk (which also picked up the original screenplay nod for Dustin Lance Black), while Kate Winslet gained her first Academy Award win for her role in The Reader. Another first-time winner was Penelope Cruz, with the best supporting actress award for Vicky Cristina Barcelona, while Heath Ledger was honored posthumously for his star turn as the Joker in The Dark Knight.

Other winners last night included Disney/Pixar’s WALL-E as best animated feature, Wall to Wall’s Man on Wire for best documentary, and the Regent Releasing-distributed Japanese feature Departures for best foreign-language film.