Theater News

Sean Penn, Kate Winslet, Penelope Cruz, Heath Ledger, et al. Among Winners at 81st Annual Academy Awards

Los Angeles
Kate Winslet and David Kross in The Reader
Kate Winslet and David Kross in The Reader

The 81st Annual Academy Awards were presented on February 22 at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles and aired live on ABC-TV. The show was hosted by Tony Award winner Hugh Jackman.

Jackman, who starred in Broadway’s The Boy from Oz, performed an opening musical number saluting this year’s films with an assist from Oscar nominee (and future Shakespeare in the Park star) Anne Hathaway. He also headlined a tribute to musical films with Dreamgirls star Beyonce Knowles, High School Musical stars Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens, and Mamma Mia! stars Amanda Seyfried and Dominic Cooper, created by La Boheme director Baz Luhrmann.

Slumdog Millionaire won eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director for Danny Boyle, Best Adapted Screenplay for Simon Beaufoy, Best Cinematography for Anthony Dod Mantle, Best Original Score for A.R. Rahman, Best Original Song (“Jai Ho”), written by Rahman and Samparoon Singh Gulzar, as well as Best Film Editing and Best Sound Editing.

This year’s acting winners were Sean Penn (Milk), Kate Winslet (The Reader), Penelope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona), and the late Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight).

Wall-E was named Best Animated Feature Film, Departures was named Best Foreign Language Film, and Man on Wire was named Best Documentary. Dustin Lance Black won Best Original Screenplay for Milk, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button won awards for Best Art Direction, Best Makeup, and Best Visual Effects.

In addition, Eddie Murphy presented the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to Broadway star Jerry Lewis, and Queen Latifah sang “I’ll Be Seeing You” as part of the annual In Memoriam segment.

Theater veterans who presented awards included Alan Arkin, Whoopi Goldberg, Joel Grey, Anthony Hopkins, Nicole Kidman, Kevin Kline, Shirley MacLaine, Steve Martin, Liam Neeson, Sarah Jessica Parker, Natalie Portman, Ben Stiller, and Christopher Walken.

For a complete list of nominees and winners, visit www.oscars.org.