Slumdog Millionaire Wins Best Pic, 8 Oscars®

2009 Oscar® Winner Count: Slumdog 8, Benjamin Button 3, Milk 2, Dark Knight 2 Picture: Slumdog Millionaire Director: Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire) Actress: Kate Winslet (The Reader) Actor: Sean Penn (Milk) Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz (Vicky Christina Barcelona) Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger (Dark Knight) Original Screenplay: Dustin Lance Black (Milk) Adapted Screenplay: Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire) Cinematography: Slumdog Millionaire Film Editing: Slumdog Millionaire Art Direction: Benjamin Button Costume Design: The Dutchess Music Score: Slumdog Millionaire (A.R. Rahman) Song: "Jai Ho" (Slumdog Millionaire - A.R. Rahman/Gulzar) Special Visual Effects: Benjamin Button Sound Mixing: Slumdog Millionaire Sound Editing: Dark Knight Makeup: Benjamin Button Foreign Language Film: Departures (Japan) Documentary, feature: Man on Wire (James Marsh) Documentary, short: Smile Pinki (Megan Mylan) Animated feature: Wall-E (Andrew Stanton) Animated short: la maison en petit cubes Live action short: Spielzeugland (Toyland), Germany Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award: Jerry Lewis (whom, we were told, also holds a patent for a camera assist device) Highlights of the night: 1 - The subject of documentary winner Man on Wire balanced the director's Oscar on his chin after making a lucky coin from German director Werner Herzog 'disappear' 2 - Kate Winslet's dad whistling in the audience so she'd know his location, and he was a cool dude in a wide brimmed Hendrix looking felt hat! POLL RESULTS: Slumdog easily won our Oscar poll, while Dark Knight won 'should have been nominated'. Interesting to me, since Wall-E has won 36 awards this year, and should have been up for best.