Oscar update: 81st Annual Academy Awards

2009 is certainly brilliant. With Hugh Jackman playing host, you can’t ask for more. Here’s your perfect host adding a touch of humor, and there’s the little musical that he played out, his opening song is surely going down in history.

The best supporting actress award saw previous winners grace the stage to represent all past winners including Whoopi Goldberg, Goldie Hawn, and Tilda Swinton. Tilda Swinton announced Penelope Cruz, this years winner for her role in Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Her acceptance speech saw an emotional Penelope thanking everyone she could.

Steve Martin and Tina Fey came on stage with with a cohost to announce the next couple of awards. Milk saw screenwriter Dustin Lance Black win the Original Screenplay award. The adapted screenplay award goes to Simon Beaufoy for Best Adapted Screenplay this year for the film Slumdog Millionaire based on a book written by Vikas Swarup.

Jennifer Aniston and Jack Black played host to announcing the next category of awards. the awrd for best animated feature film went to Andrew Stanton for Wall-E. The other nominations were Bolt, and Kungfu Panda. This was his 5th nomination so far. The best animated short film award went to Kunio Kato for La Maison en Petits Cubes.

The next hosts were Daniel Craig and Sarah Jessica Parker to announce the winners for art direction. The award went to Donald Graham Burt (Art Direction) and Victor J. Zolfo (Set Decoration) for the film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The next award went to Michael O’Connor for the film The Duchess for achievement in costume design. The award for achievement in makeup went to Greg Cannom the film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
Robert Pattinson too made it on stage as host.

The next hosts had guests in splits. Natalie and Ben Stiller put up a great show and announced the next awards. The best cinematographer award went to Anthony Dod Mantle for Slumdog Millionaire.

Jessica Biel came on next in a pretty gown to honor someone for his contribution and I didn’t understand this bit.

Next there was a great video montage of James Franco and Seth Rogen watching a video of scenes from nominated films all put together pretty funnily. They came on next to announce the award for the best live action short film. The award went to Jochen Alexander Freydank for SPIELZEUGLAND (TOYLAND).

What I just saw was pretty entertaining. A musical, to be accurate, High School musical, was performed with great gusto by none other than Beyonce and Hugh Jackman. Of course I hate what Beyonce wore or her performance and loved Jackman. Not only is Hugh Grant funny, he’s really a powerhouse of energy.

The run up to the best supporting actor male was anxious and hopeful for everybody I guess. Not only did we see 5 former supporting actor winners, the award was given to Heath Ledger for his role as the Joker in The Dark Knight. His family collected the award and I think everyone genuinely missed Heath, and expressed their respect and love with the customary standing ovation.

The next awards were in the documentary categories with Bill Maher playing host. The best documentary feature went to James Marsh and Simon Chinn for Man on Wire. It’s a great documentary on French performance artist Philippe Petit. I personally love this one because I’ve seen this guy on many shows. Megan Mylan won the short subject documentary for Smile Pinki. I love this too because it’s really nice and tells a simple story about little Pinki dealing with Harelip and Dr. Subodhs contribution.

Will Smith came on next to announce the next few awards. The team of Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton and Craig Barron won the visual effects award for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The achievement in sound editing went to Richard King for The Dark Knight. The Sound Mixing title was lapped by Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke and Resul Pookutty for Slumdog Millionaire. Chris Dickens took home another award for the Slumdog camp in the film editing category.

The next standing ovation came for Jerry Lewis, veteran actor, and comedian who received the Jean Hersholt humanitarian award for his support towards those with muscular dystrophy through the muscular dystrophy telethon.

This is a brilliant achievement for A.R.Rehman with 2 awards for Slumdog yet again. He won the awards for best music score and best song as well. The song selected is Jai Ho. A musical medley even saw Rehman perform on stage in between both the award announcements with plenty of Bollywood style dance in the background. Alicia Keys and Zac Ephron played host during these announcements.

Liam Neeson and Frieda Pinto played host to announce the winner of the best foreign language film of the year. The award went to the film Departures from Japan. Director Yojiro Takita was overjoyed at the recognition.

Queen Latifah performed a sort of musical tribute to all people the film fraternity has lost. I didn’t know them all but the song was meaningful.

Reese Witherspoon was on stage to announce the award for best director. Well, you guessed it, Danny Boyle took this one home. Certainly Slumdog was a clean sweep, and the best directing award was certainly awaited.

The pattern to call on 5 former best actress award winners. The award for performance by an actress in a leading role this year goes to Kate Winslet for her role in The Reader. Meryl Streep, Angelina Jolie, Anne Hathaway, and Mellissa Leo were the other nominees.

To introduce this years 5 ominations for best actor, Micheal Douglas, Ben Kingsley, Adrian Broody, Anthony Hopkins, and Robert de Niro were called on stage. the award went to Sean Penn for his portrayal of Harvey MIlk in the film Milk. Sean Penn did give a great acceptance speech and supported gay activists. The other nominees were Brad Pitt, Richard Jenkins, Mickey Rourke, and Frank Langella were the other nominees.

Steven Spielberg announced the Best picture award and the announcement saw a majority of the Slumdog crew get on center stage. A truly happy moment for Christian Colson with the best motion picture of the year coming their way.