As was widely predicted, Slumdog Millionaireswept the boards at the 81st Academy Awards ceremony in Hollywood last night. Nominated for 10 Oscars, it collected eight, including the most coveted prize, best picture. It was a popular, well-deserved winner.
Its Oscar triumph provided a fairytale ending for a relatively low-budget production with a rags-to-riches story that mirrored its own narrative of a Mumbai street boy heading for the jackpot on the Indian version of TV quiz show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.
Early last summer, Slumdog Millionairewas without a distributor in the US. And it seemed to lack the credentials that lead to Oscar success. Not only does it have no "name" actors, but most of the cast never appeared in another movie. About a fifth of the dialogue is in Hindi and sub-titled in English. And it's set in India, but then, so was Gandhi, which also won eight Oscars, including best picture, at the 1983 ceremony.
None of the Irish nominees went the distance at last night's awards. Ireland's best hope of an Oscar seemed to be Steph Green's short film, New Boy, based on a Roddy Doyle story, but the statuette went to the German entry, Toyland.
Irish producer Redmond Morris was nominated for the best picture award with The Reader, but it failed to halt the Slumdogmomentum. Martin McDonagh's screenplay for In Brugeslost out to Dustin Lance Black's incisive work on Milkin the best original screenplay category. Production designer Nathan Crowley had received his second Oscar nomination for The Dark Knight, but the prize went to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
By far the longest and most expensive of the best picture nominees this year, Benjamin Button, starring Brad Pitt as a man who reverses in age from his eighties, led the field with 13 nominations but had to be content with three Oscars, all in technical categories.
One of the few surprises of the ceremony was that Mickey Rourke did not take the best actor award for his comeback performance in The Wrestler, but the Oscar went to a much stronger performance in Sean Penn's portrayal of murdered gay San Francisco politician Harvey Milk in Milk.
The other upset of the night came in the foreign language film category where the front runners were Laurent Cantet's Cannes winner The Classand Ari Folman's Israeli animated documentary Waltz with Bashir. The unexpected victor was the Japanese entry, Yojiro Takita's Departures, in which an out-of-work cellist finds a new job at a mortuary.
The most emotional moment of the night came when the best supporting actor Oscar was awarded posthumously to Heath Ledger, who died a year ago last month at the age of 29, for his no-holds-barred performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight.There was a sustained standing ovation when Ledger's father, mother and sister took to the stage and accepted the award in dignified, moving speeches.
Kate Winslet, on her sixth nomination at the age of 33, took the best actress award for her intense portrayal of a former Nazi collaborator put on trial in The Reader. Another hot favourite, Penélope Cruz was voted best supporting actress for Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona. And Man on Wirewas voted best documentary feature.
The prize for best animated feature film unsurprisingly went to Wall-E. The only note of controversy surrounding last night's ceremony was that Peter Gabriel, who was in the audience, had refused to sing his nominated song from Wall-Ebecause he had been allocated just 65 seconds, and John Legend sang it instead.
The Oscar for best original song went to the rousing Jai Ho from Slumdog Millionaire, which also collected awards for best director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Simon Beaufoy, along with best original score, cinematography, film editing and sound.
Among the many films that entered the ceremony with multiple nominations and went home empty-handed were Frost/Nixon, Doubt, Revolutionary Road, The Wrestler, Changeling, Frozen River, Wantedand Iron Man.
Veteran comedian Jerry Lewis received the only honorary Oscar during the show, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. Lewis, who will be 83 next month, was never nominated for an Oscar during a career that spanned over half a century.
Hugh Jackman made his debut as presenter of the overlong Oscar ceremony, which had been revamped significantly but with mixed results. His performance was smooth and witty, although far short of Billy Crystal’s repartee when he hosted the show, and he was off stage for most of the ceremony.
The best lines last night went to two double acts – James Franco and Seth Rogen back in character as their stoned slackers from Pineapple Express, and Tina Fey and Steve Martin's entertaining verbal jousting as they presented the two screenplay awards – and to Ben Stiller who poked wicked fun at Joaquin Phoenix's new image as a remote, heavily bearded retired actor.
*Edited highlights of the Oscars ceremony will be show on RTÉ 2 at 9pm tonight.