...And the Winner Is

Slumdog Dominates, Benjamin Button Follows

Youssef Talaat

The 81st Academy Awards (also known as the Oscars) were held at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles, California on February 22, 2009. The event was held by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and was hosted by Hugh Jackman (X-Men, Van Helsing). The ceremony is held to honor the best movies of 2008, and it is considered the biggest and most prestigious movie event of the year. Of course, the biggest movie stars in the business attend the event, even though many celebrities do not get recognized; only the worthy are celebrated at the Oscars.

This year, the nominees for each award were announced on January 22, 2009, one month before the event. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was in the lead with thirteen nominations while Slumdog Millionaire received ten. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is the fascinating story of a man that ages backwards; Slumdog Millionare is the dramatic story of a young Indian from the slums of Mumbai that wins twenty million rupees and raises the suspicions of everyone around him. The Dark Knight and Milk both received eight nominations, and WALL-E got six nominations, tying it with Beauty and the Beast for the most nominated animated film in Oscar history. Doubt, The Reader, and Frost/Nixon each received five nominations. Challenging and Revolutionary Road each got three nominations while The Duchess, Frozen River, Iron Man, Wanted, and The Wrestler each received two nominations.

Only four films received multiple awards in the evening. Slumdog Millionaire received eight awards followed by The Curious Case of Benjamin Button receiving three awards then The Dark Knight and Milk both receiving two awards. The Best Picture Award went to Slumdog Millionaire and the Best Director Award went to Slumdog’s Danny Boyle. The Best Actor Award went to Sean Penn of Milk and Best Actress went to Kate Winslet of The Reader. The late Heath Ledger of The Dark Knight won Best Supporting Actor while Penélope Cruz of Vicky Cristina Barcelona won Best Supporting Actress. Best Original Screenplay went to Milk’s Dustin Lance Black, and Best Adapted Screenplay went to Slumdog’s Simon Beaufoy. Best Animated Feature went to WALL-E’s Andrew Stanton, and Best Foreign Language Film went to Yojiro Takita of the Japanese film, Departures.

Over the years, the viewership of the Oscars significantly decreased because people though it was lengthy and somewhat monotonous. Due to this decline in viewership, the Academy hired an entirely new production team that was sworn to secrecy before the ceremony. The Academy attempted to revive the ceremony by changing the general script and theme; they had even gone as far as to advertise it as "The Biggest Movie Event of the Year". Critics had mixed feeling about this attempted change; the Los Angeles Times said the show "fell flat," while E! Online said, "Jackman nailed it!"