SHOWBIZ> The 81st Academy Awards
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SHOWBIZ> The 81st Academy Awards
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Global flavor sweeps the Oscars
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-02-24 11:12 And Australian Heath Ledger, who died last year of an accidental prescription pill overdose, was named best supporting actor for his role as the evil Joker in the Batman blockbuster The Dark Knight. Sean Penn, the lone American among the newly honored performers, was voted best actor for his portrait of slain gay rights leader Harvey Milk in the political drama Milk. But Slumdog, shot on a modest budget of $15 million, was the big winner. Besides best picture and best director, the film also earned Oscars for cinematography, sound mixing, film editing, original score and song. The movie's triumph restored a kind of feel-good mood to the Oscars amid the global economic downturn, following several years in which dark dramas, No Country for Old Men, The Departed and Crash topped the Oscars. The only arena in which the film was overshadowed was in the acting categories, where A-list stars earned the nominations over the relatively unknown cast of Slumdog. Winslet, a six-time nominee, fought back tears when accepting her trophy and remembered a time as a child when she dreamed of winning it. "I would be lying if I said I haven't made a version of this speech before. I think I was probably 8-years-old and staring into the bathroom mirror," she said. |
