Neighbors of Azharuddin Ismail, who acted in ‘Slumdog Millionaire,’ react as they watch the 81 st Academy Awards presentation on television outside their homes in Mumbai

Rags-to-riches romance “Slumdog Millionaire” won eight Oscars Sunday, including the prize for best picture in a climactic triumph for a movie that almost failed to get released.

Among the “Slumdog” honors, Briton Danny Boyle was named best director for the often dark but ultimately hopeful tale and writer Simon Beaufoy won adapted screenplay.

“Slumdog” also earned Oscars for best cinematography, sound mixing, film editing, original score for composer A.R. Rahman and best song, “Jai Ho” for Rahman and lyricist Gulzar. Only seven other films in the 81-year-history of the Oscars have won eight or more awards.

It was a fairytale night for “Slumdog,” which had been nearly released directly to video last year, a move which would have ruled it out of Oscars contention.

Filmed in the teeming slums of Mumbai, the movie was orphaned at one point when it was dropped by financier Warner Independent Pictures, a division of giant Warner Bros. Fox Searchlight Pictures ultimately rescued the project and released the movie to critical acclaim in November.

“You’ve been so generous to us this evening, and I want to thank you for that,” Boyle said to the Academy Award audience when accepting his trophy.

Earlier, several of the child actors from “Slumdog Millionaire” were the center of attention at the pre-Oscars red carpet parade, a world away from their lives in Mumbai’s shantytowns.

Ayush Mahesh Khedekar, who plays the film’s hero as a child, told a reporter delightedly: “It’s unbelievable. I never thought I’d be at the Oscars.”

Khedekar and his young co-stars were later seen crowding around British actor Daniel Craig - best known for his role as British super-spy 007 in the James Bond action films - to get autographs.

Shortly afterwards, the young actors were seen rushing up to Hollywood icon Meryl Streep in search of more autographs.

The acting honors saw Sean Penn triumph for his portrayal of murdered gay politician Harvey Milk in the biopic “Milk” while Britain’s Kate Winslet ended her Oscars losing streak for her performance in Holocaust drama “The Reader.”

“Thank you. Thank you. You commie, homoloving sons-of-a-gun. I did not expect this,” joked the famously outspoken Penn after collecting the second best actor Oscar of his career.

“I want to be very clear that I do know how hard I make it for you to appreciate me, often,” he said. “I am touched by the appreciation.”

Penn used his acceptance speech to urge opponents of same-sex marriage - recently banned in California - to rethink their positions.

Winslet, 33, meanwhile won her first Oscar after five previous defeats, for her portrayal of a former Nazi death camp guard who starts a love affair with a teenage boy in post-war Germany and is later put on trial for war crimes.

She fought back tears when accepting her trophy and remembered a time as a child when she dreamed of winning it.

“I’d be lying if I haven’t made a version of this speech before. I think I was probably eight years old and staring into the bathroom mirror and this would have been a shampoo bottle,” she told the audience.

“It’s not a shampoo bottle now,” Winslet quipped. “I feel very fortunate to have made it all the way from there to here and I’d like to thank some of the people along the way who had faith in me.”

There was a tear-jerking posthumous Oscar for late Australian actor Heath Ledger, a moment of unforgettable poignancy that reduced the star-studded audience to hushed silence.

Ledger’s family took to the stage to collect the tragic star’s best supporting actor honor for his portrayal of Batman villain the Joker in “The Dark Knight.”

“Heath, we both knew what you had created in the Joker was extraordinarily special, and had even talked about being here on this very day,” Ledger’s sister Kate said. “We really wish you were, but we proudly accept this award on behalf of your beautiful daughter Matilda. Thank you,” she added.

Spanish star Penelope Cruz won the best supporting actress prize for her part in the steamy Woody Allen comedy “Vicky Cristina Barcelona.”

“Has anybody ever fainted here? Because I might be the first one,” an overwhelmed Cruz said as she accepted her award.

Period romance “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” which began the night with 13 nominations, ended the night with only three Oscars in the technical categories of art direction, makeup and visual effects.

In other awards, Dustin Lance Black won the best original screenplay Oscar for writing “Milk, and “Wall-E,” telling of a futuristic robot who finds love while on a polluted Earth, was best animated film.

“Man on Wire” about a tightrope walker who dared to walk between New York’s Twin Towers was named best documentary.

In the night’s one big surprise, Japanese movie “Departures” beat the favorite, Israeli film “Waltz with Bashir,” for foreign language film.

Jackman adds music

The new-look awards extravaganza got off to a flying start with Australian actor host Hugh Jackman, the first non-comedian to host the Oscars in more than two decades, wasting no time in launching into a medley of musical numbers that referenced this year’s nominees.

The number covered all five of the best film nominees and had Jackman dancing hip hop, hitting high notes in a duet with Anne Hathaway for “Frost/Nixon” and climbing to the top rope of a fake wrestling ring to crescendo his song with “The Wrestler.”

Later, he performed an old-style number in top hat and tails with Beyonce, Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens. Among the funnier acts was Ben Stiller doing an impersonation of a wacky Joaquin Phoenix, who has quit acting to take up hip hop music.

Jackman had been brought in to restore some fun to a show that has seen a slide in television viewership in recent years as Academy members have generally favored dark dramas.

While Oscar producers promised a departure from the usual format, Jackman’s turn as emcee was not without the usual banter of his comic predecessors.

Poking fun at Meryl Streep, who earned a record 15th career nomination for her work in “Doubt”, he said: “I hate to say it but when someone puts up numbers like that, it’s just hard not to think: steroids.”

Jackman’s first joke of the night came at his own expense, saying he is an Australian playing an Australian character in his latest film, “Australia.”

“Because of the recession, everything is being downsized,” he said, deadpanning that, “Next year, I’ll be starring in a movie called ‘New Zealand.’”

In the most noticeable break with the past, the show called on giants of the acting world to introduce each individual nominee in the acting categories, a ploy that heightened the anticipation inside the theater.

“How did he do it?” presenter Robert De Niro asked of Sean Penn, “How for so many years did Sean Penn get all those straight roles?”

Source: AFP, Reuters