  "Slumdog Millionaire" director Danny Boyle, right, holds his Oscar for Best Director alongside cast members Dev Patel, far left, and Freida Pinto at the official Oscar After Party for Fox Searchlight's "Slumdog Millionaire" and "The Wrestler" in West Hollywood, Calif., Sunday, Feb. 22, 2009. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
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LOS ANGELES -- The underdog won big at the 81st Oscars last night. In a David and Goliath struggle, the hungry little Slumdog Millionaire toppled the nominations leader, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
Danny Boyle's film about romance, class and smarts in the slums of Mumbai won eight of the glittering, golden statuettes -- including best picture and best director. Slumdog lost in only one of its nominated categories in the early going, then swept through its final categories.
Slumdog producer Christian Colson, surrounded by nine of his actors, director Danny Boyle and other members of the film's entourage, joyously announced: "As you can see, our film was a collaboration between hundreds of people. Together, we have been on an extraordinary journey!"
Boyle's joyous film tied Richard Attenborough's Gandhi for the most Academy Awards won by a British production.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was nominated 13 times but won just three Oscars -- for visual effects, art direction and makeup.
After Slumdog and Button, Academy voters spread the riches far and wide. The Dark Knight and Milk were the only other multiple winners, with two apiece. Vicky Cristina Barcelona, The Reader, The Duchess, Departures and the animated Pixar film WALL-E each had one in the 20 feature-film categories. Frost/Nixon was the only best-picture nominee to be shut out.
Kate Winslet finally got her first Oscar with her sixth nomination, this time for playing an unrepentant German concentration camp worker during the Second World War in The Reader. Winslet made no political or social comments about the controversial film on stage, instead cheekily recounting how she dreamed of winning since she was 8 and the Oscar was represented by a shampoo bottle.
"It's not a shampoo bottle now," she said, near tears. Winslet, during a litany of thank-yous to various people, mentioned her father and shouted out for him to whistle so she could see him. He did, and she gleamed and squealed, thrusting her arm out to salute him.
Backstage, Winslet did address the controversy, saying that, "I can't be responsible" when viewers feel a moral problem when they view The Reader. "It certainly was not my intention to make people sympathize with an SS guard!"
Sean Penn won his second Oscar as best actor, this time for playing the late gay crusader and San Francisco politician Harvey Milk, in the drama Milk. He got some of the biggest laughs of the night by shouting to the celebrity audience: "You Commie-homo loving sons of guns!"
Penn, acknowledging the obvious in an amusing way, admitted he has not always been popular: "I know how hard I make it for you to appreciate me."
But Penn, being Penn, also spoke up for gay rights, calling the protesters outside the Kodak Theatre "cowards" for speaking against gay rights, with slogans he dismissed as "meaningless gibberish." Penn said: "We've got to have equal rights for everyone."
He then also paid tribute to America for electing "an elegant man" as president and for embracing artists, even ones as controversial as his "brother" and fellow nominee as best actor, Mickey Rourke.
As expected, the late Heath Ledger won the supporting-actor Oscar, only the second person ever to win posthumously in any acting category. The first was Peter Finch as best actor for Network (1976).
In a night with many bursts of silliness and frivolity, the Ledger moment was riveting and sad, as Ledger's parents Sally and Kim, and older sister Kate, took the stage to accept the award on his behalf. It was dedicated to Heath's daughter, Matilda.
"This is ever so humbling," Kim Ledger said quietly. Sally Bell Ledger said their son was "a compassionate and generous soul" and they were overwhelmed to be accepting the Oscar for him. "Tonight we are choosing to be happy and celebrate," she said.
Backstage, the family confirmed that the Oscar would be held in trust for their granddaughter. "Obviously it belongs to Matilda," Kate Ledger said, "but whatever has to happen in the meantime ..."
The "meantime" period will last for years, Kim Ledger said. "We intend to keep it for Matilda, but she can't sign for it until she is 18, so it will be kept in trust." The family does not know if that means it will be kept in the U.S. by the Academy, or taken back to Australia.
While Ledger's win was a lock, the surprises started early -- with the first Oscar awarded. Contrary to predictions, Penelope Cruz grabbed the Oscar as supporting actress for playing a fiery Spanish temptress in Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona.
This was the first subtle indicator that The Curious Case of Benjamin Button would not succeed in defeating Slumdog Millionaire. Among others, Cruz beat highly touted Taraji B. Henson, nominated for playing the woman who adopts the Brad Pitt character as a wizened baby.
Cruz was visibly shaken. "Has anybody ever fainted here?" she asked, trembling. "Because I might be the first one." Cruz, dedicating her Oscar to family and friends, recounted how she watched the Oscars as a young girl growing up in Spain. "This ceremony was always a moment of unity in the world," she said of paying homage to cinema.
Backstage, Cruz admitted that even winning an Oscar won't lessen her insecurities as an actress. "I am always insecure on the set."
Cruz promised to call Allen, who did not attend the Oscars, as soon as she could get free last night. "Of course I have to call Woody," she said, citing his genius and the joy she felt working with him. Otherwise, she said, all she needed to do was party: "I want good music so I can dance."
Openly gay screenwriter Dustin Lance Black used the podium to espouse gay rights after winning for best original screenplay for Milk. Black said the example of Harvey Milk, the subject of the film, "gave me the hope to live my life." To cheers and applause, he predicted that gay rights would soon be a reality in America on "a federal basis."
In the adapted screenplay category, Simon Beaufoy won for Millionaire. The cool and funny Beaufoy says he never dreamed of being on the moon, at the South Pole, on the podium of the Miss World pageant "and here," referring to the Oscar stage.
Backstage, he described how the Slumdog express has caught up him and his fellow filmmakers in the excitement. That feeling did not start until the film appeared at the Toronto International Film Festival last September, Beaufoy said. "We suddenly realized we had a good film on our hands," he said. "So we have Canada to thank for this!"
WALL-E won for best animated feature. That was expected, but the fate of the edgy Pixar film was a little in doubt recently because Kung Fu Panda had stolen the animated world's own award, the Annie, as best picture earlier this month.
As another way of spreading the wealth around, the period costume drama The Duchess earned the award for best costume design.
