81st Academy Awards (for films in 2008)

81st Academy Awards for films released in 2008 just came to a close and the overall the tally speaks to a sweep: Slumdog Millionaire 8, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button 3, Milk 2, The Dark Knight 2 all other films that won were for 1 category. Many predictions people are happy but we certainly had a few surprizes. The winners themselves are certainly from various prediction polls but the main difference was the format of the show which included musical numbers and new montages for romance and action films.

The word on the street was that they were appealing to the younger crowd which explains the Zac Efron and Robert Pattison appearances. They also had a huge infusion of appreciation of non-nominated films. The biggest change I felt was to the introduction to acting awards, all the supporting and lead acting noms are introduced by previous winners who honour the nominees by describing their role in the film as well as film as a whole. It was also refreshing to see so few speeches cut off. A.R. Rahman winning right before performing and doing both so well!

Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Sean Penn in Milk

Performance by an actor in a Supporting Role
Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight

Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Kate Winslet in The Reader

Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
Penélope Cruz in Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year
WALL-E Andrew Stanton

Achievement in Art Direction
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button , Art Direction: Donald Graham Burt, Set Decoration: Victor J. Zolfo

Achievement in Cinematography
Slumdog Millionaire , Anthony Dod Mantle

Achievement in Costume Design
The Duchess, Michael O’Connor

Achievement in Directing
Slumdog Millionaire , Danny Boyle

Best Documentary Feature
Man on Wire, James Marsh and Simon Chinn

Best Documentary Short Subject
Smile Pinki A Principe Production, Megan Mylan

Achievement in Film Editing
Slumdog Millionaire , Chris Dickens

Best Foreign Language Film of the Year
Departures, Japan

Achievement in Makeup
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button , Greg Cannom

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original Score)
Slumdog Millionaire , A.R. Rahman

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original Song)
Jai Ho from Slumdog Millionaire , Music by A.R. Rahman, Lyric by Gulzar

Best Motion Picture of the Year
Slumdog Millionaire, Christian Colson, Producer

Best Animated Short Film
La Maison en Petits Cubes, Kunio Kato

Best Live Action Short Film
Spielzeugland, Jochen Alexander Freydank

Achievement in Sound Editing
The Dark Knight , Richard King

Achievement in Sound Mixing
Slumdog Millionaire , Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke and Resul Pookutty

Achievement in Visual Effects
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button , Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton and Craig Barron

Adapted Screenplay
Slumdog Millionaire , Screenplay by Simon Beaufoy

Original Screenplay
Milk, Written by Dustin Lance Black

Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award
Jerry Lewis