Oscars 2009: the results

In what feels like a six-month trail to one orgiastic night of self-congratulation, Time Out is breathing a huge sigh of relief as the 2009 Academy Awards have been consigned to history with big wins for Britain's 'Slumdog Millionaire', Kate Winslet for her performance in Stephen Daldry's 'The Reader' and Sean Penn for Gus Van Sant's terrific 'Milk'.

Jettisoning the leftfield, political comic stylings that last year’s host Jon Stewart bought to the ceremony, Aussie actor Hugh Jackman was the master of ceremonies and offered a solid if unremarkable performance. At least his straight delivery helped make his guests appear funnier than they actually are.

Predictably, it was Danny Boyle’s giant-killing slab of Mumbai-set magical realism, ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ that swept the board.

The film picked up the coveted one-two punch of Best Film – accepted by producer Christian Colson – and Best Director, which Boyle, as two weeks ago at the BAFTAs, looked pleased as punch about.

'Slumdog Millionaire' also picked up a clutch of technical awards, including Best Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Adapted Screenplay (for Brit Simon 'The Full Monty' Beaufoy), Best Song and Best Score (both for AR Rahman).

Many commentators had suggested that the 2009 Oscars were going to be something of a damp squib. The main worry was that the awards favourites were so far ahead of the pack that the element of surprise was zero. While shocks were few and far between, the biggest bombshell was that Sean Penn picked up the Best Actor award for his turn ‘Milk’, putting an end to a perfect run at previous awards by fellow contender Mickey Rourke.

Rourke's weather-beaten turn as a dejected fighter in Darren Aronofsky’s ‘The Wrestler’ was certainly a triumph, but we were glad to see Gus Van Sant’s superb political biopic ‘Milk’ finally getting the recognition it so thoroughly deserves. We were also heartened to see Dustin Lance Black, the film’s writer, pick up the award for Best Original Screenplay.  

Flag-wavers will be pleased that the Brits came up trumps again as Kate Winslet was awarded a Best Actress statuette in acknowledgment of her fine performance in Stephen Daldry’s ‘The Reader’. The Academy was probably rather miffed at her restrained acceptance speech, maybe hoping that another on-stage outburst of histrionic blubbing and name-dropping would have flown her up the YouTube charts as happened previously for her Golden Globes speech.

More British triumphs came in the form of the Best Documentary award, which went to Simon Chinn and James Marsh for ‘Man on Wire’, their edge-of-the-seat chronicle of French stuntman Philippe Petit's wire walk between New York City's Twin Towers in 1974.

There was also cause for patriotic cheer when Michael O’Connor picked up the Best Costume Design award for Saul Dibb’s underrated ‘The Duchess’.

There were more dead certs in the Supporting Actor and Actress categories. Heath Ledger picked up a posthumous award for his truly unnerving turn in ‘The Dark Knight’, while Penelope Cruz hit the jackpot as a fiery Catalan saucepot in Woody Allen’s ‘Vicky Cristina Barcelona’.

We were also pleased to see Andrew Stanton’s ‘WALL-E’ make the grade for Best Animation (was there anything within a thousand miles of beating it?). But we were slightly disappointed that Ari Folman’s bracingly original ‘Waltz with Bashir’ wasn’t recognised in the Best Foreign Film category. The winner was a Japanese film called ‘Departures’ by director Yojiro Takita which has not been released yet in the UK. We’re looking forward to seeing what all the fuss is about.

The Oscar contenders of 2009 won’t be remembered as a vintage pack, especially when compared to the big films of last year ('There Will Be Blood', 'No Country for Old Men'). This year, the main awards went to 'Slumdog Millionaire', a film which, though totally harmless and enjoyable, will surely be the subject of one of those ‘What were they thinking?’ essays 20 years down the line – you know, the ones usually reserved for the likes of ‘Chicago’, ‘Out of Africa’ and ‘Driving Miss Daisy’.

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