Presenters
- Alicia Keys – Best Original Score, Best Original Song
- Zac Efron – Best Original Score, Best Original Song
- Bill Maher – Best Documentary Film
- Kevin Kline – Best Supporting Actor
- Christopher Walken – Best Supporting Actor
- Cuba Gooding, Jr. – Best Supporting Actor
- Alan Arkin – Best Supporting Actor
- Joel Grey – Best Supporting Actor
- James Franco – Best Live Action Short
- Seth Rogen – Best Live Action Short
- Jessica Biel – Technical Awards Mention
- Natalie Portman – Best Cinematography
- Ben Stiller – Best Cinematography
- Jennifer Aniston – Best Short Film Animated, Animated Feature
- Jack Black – Best Short Film Animated, Animated Feature
- Sarah Jessica Parker – Best Art Direction, Costume Design, Makeup
- Daniel Craig – Best Art Direction, Costume Design, Makeup
- Robert Pattinson – Romance 2008 Montage
- Amanda Seyfried – Romance 2008 Montage
- Tina Fey – Best Screenplay Adapted and Original
- Steve Martin – Best Screenplay Adapted and Original
- Whoopi Goldberg – Best Supporting Actress
- Goldie Hawn – Best Supporting Actress
- Anjelica Huston – Best Supporting Actress
- Eva Marie Saint – Best Supporting Actress
- Tilda Swinton – Best Supporting Actress
- Will Smith – Best Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Film Editing, Visual Effects
- Reese Witherspoon – Best Director
- Sophia Loren – Best Actress
- Shirley MacLaine – Best Actress
- Marion Cotillard – Best Actress
- Nicole Kidman – Best Actress
- Halle Berry – Best Actress
- Michael Douglas – Best Actor
- Adrien Brody – Best Actor
- Robert De Niro – Best Actor
- Anthony Hopkins – Best Actor
- Ben Kingsley – Best Actor
- Steven Spielberg – Best Picture
Performers
- Queen Latifah performed “I’ll Be Seeing You” during the annual “In Memoriam” tribute.
- James Marvel last minute addition violinist.
- Anne Hathaway portrayed “Nixon” aside Hugh Jackman in the opening sequence
- Hugh Jackman, Beyoncé Knowles, Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Amanda Seyfried, and Dominic Cooper performed a medley created by Baz Luhrmann of songs from movie musicals. The medley of nominees for best song was performed by A. R. Rahman, John Legend, and Mahalaxmi Iyer
The 81st Academy Awards ceremony was held by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to honor its selection of the best films of 2008 on Sunday, February 22, 2009, at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, California. The ceremony was televised in the United States on ABC and on Sky Movies in High definition in the United Kingdom. Australian performer Hugh Jackman hosted the ceremony for the first time. Academy Award-nominated producer Laurence Mark produced with Academy Award-winning writer/director Bill Condon as executive producer.
“Slumdog Millionaire” — a love story that combines artistic ambition with broad commercial appeal — won a leading eight Oscars on Sunday night, including the best picture trophy.
While the film’s triumphs at the 81st annual Academy Awards marked an amazing outcome for a movie filled with subtitles, scenes of torture and a Bollywood dance sequence, the wins also cemented the reputation of distributor Fox Searchlight, which has become Hollywood’s top advocate of the kind of daring works that movie studios have all but abandoned.
Slumdog Millionaire’s wins should send a huge message to Hollywood: Don’t overlook the little guy.
With small distributors going out of business and major studios shuttering their specialty divisions, Slumdog is a success story that almost inevitably will become — indeed already has become — increasingly rare.
Even Slumdog almost didn’t make it to the cineplex. Warner Independent Pictures planned to distribute the film but went out of business last May, so Slumdog was set to go to DVD. Then, Fox Searchlight, one of the last remaining art-house divisions of a major studio, stepped in.
Peruvian film The Milk of Sorrow has won the Berlin Film Festival’s coveted Golden Bear award for best picture.
The first Peruvian film in the festival’s main competition, it tells the story of a young woman who was born of her mother’s rape in the 1980s.
It beat hotly-tipped The Messenger, starring Woody Harrelson, and My One and Only, with Renee Zellweger.
The runner-up Silver Bear was shared by Uruguay’s Gigante and Germany’s Everyone Else.
The Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards (traditional Chinese: 臺北金馬影展; pinyin: Táiběi Jīnmǎ Yǐngzhǎn) is a film festival and awards ceremony held annually in Taiwan (governed by the Republic of China) since 1962. The awards ceremony is usually held in November/December in Taipei, though the venue has been shifted around the island in recent times.
The Golden Horse Film Awards (traditional Chinese: 金馬獎; pinyin: Jīnmǎ Jiǎng) are modeled after the Academy Awards and major film festivals worldwide. The awards, contested by submissions from Taiwan, Hong Kong, People’s Republic of China (PRC) and elsewhere, are generally thought to be the most prestigious for Chinese-language films outside the PRC.
