Slumdog Millionaire wins!

Hauling a total of eight awards, this movie about a slum dweller turned millionaire dominates this year’s Academy Awards. It took home the best Directing (Danny Boyle), Song (”Jai Ho”), Musical Score, Film Editing, Sound Mixing, Cinematography, Adapted Screenplay (Simon Beaufoy of “Full Monty”) and of course, Best Picture. That’s eight out of 10 nominations (including two nominations for best Song).

Directed by Danny Boyle and Loveleen Tandan (co-director in India), Slumdog Millionaire was shot in Mumbai. Adapted from a novel written by Vikas Swarup,  the movie juxtaposes reality and fantasy, pain and suffering with joy and love. Yes, it’s a love story but with a twist.

Slumdog Millionaire has been hauling awards from other award-giving bodies (including 7 awards from BAFTA and four from the Golden Globes), and has been anticipated as a big winner in this year’s Oscars.

If you haven’t watched the film, here’s a brief summary of the story from Fox Searchlight Pictures:

The story of Jamal Malik (Dev Patel), an 18 year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai, who is about to experience the biggest day of his life. With the whole nation watching, he is just one question away from winning a staggering 20 million rupees on India’s “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” But when the show breaks for the night, police arrest him on suspicion of cheating; how could a street kid know so much? Desperate to prove his innocence, Jamal tells the story of his life in the slum where he and his brother grew up, of their adventures together on the road, of vicious encounters with local gangs, and of Latika (Freida Pinto), the girl he loved and lost. Each chapter of his story reveals the key to the answer to one of the game show’s questions. Each chapter of Jamal’s increasingly layered story reveals where he learned the answers to the show’s seemingly impossible quizzes. But one question remains a mystery: what is this young man with no apparent desire for riches really doing on the game show? When the new day dawns and Jamal returns to answer the final question, the Inspector and sixty million viewers are about to find out. At the heart of its storytelling lies the question of how anyone comes to know the things they know about life and love.

Here’s another interesting liveblog from the Oscars. Check it out.

SLAMDUNK FOR SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE WINS.

Steven Speilberg introduces the nominees for best picture.

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So far, Slumdog Millionaire has hauled six awards including best in Directing

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Sean Penn wins for his role in Milk. Penn acknowledges fellow nominee Mickey Rourke who played an aging wrestler in The Wrestler.

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We’re now hearing all the best actor nominees being introduced by fellow best actor winners…

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So far, here are the winners of the 81st Academy Awards.

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Kate Winslet wins!

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Quotable quote from Ben Stiller doing a Joaquin Phoenix: “Slumdog was totally shot on a cellphone.”

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Slumdog Millionaire wins best adopted screenplay. Before that Milk get the original screeplay award.

by Paula Bustamante
Agence France-Presse

HOLLYWOOD–Penelope Cruz created a piece of Hollywood history here on Sunday after becoming the first Spanish actress to win an Oscar for her performance in the Woody Allen comedy “Vicky Cristina Barcelona.”

The 34-year-old’s victory in the supporting actress category represented a glittering recognition of an acting talent that has seen her appear in two Oscar-winning foreign language movies.

However it was her scene-stealing performance as Maria Elena, the neurotic wife of an artist, in Allen’s steamy Barcelona-set comedy that finally saw her strike Oscars gold.

Born in Madrid in 1974, Cruz appeared destined for a career in the entertainment industry almost as soon as she could walk. As a child she entertained family members by mimicking popular television commercials.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

By Rob Woollard
Agence France-Presse

BEVERLY HILLS–The race for the Oscars enters the final lap here Thursday with drama “Slumdog Millionaire” vying for top honors as nominations for the 81st Academy Awards are revealed.

After sweeping a series of awards in the build-up to Thursday’s pre-dawn announcement at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Mumbai-set “Slumdog Millionaire” is regarded as a certainty to earn nominations in the best picture and best director categories.

A rags-to-riches love story about a contestant on India’s version of television quiz show “Who Wants to be a Millionaire,” the film has already been installed as favorite for the best picture statuette at the February 22 awards show at Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre.

However, Oscars pundits believe British director Danny Boyle’s film could be vulnerable if the Batman blockbuster “The Dark Knight” elbows its way into contention across multiple categories.

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