Slumdog Millionaire Triumphs at The 2009 BAFTAs.
Success for the brits as Danny Boyle and Kate Winslet win big.
Feb 11, 2009
February 8th 2009. The stars take their seats and us civilians sit at home with our cups of tea not only to watch Jonathan Ross trying to stick to the script and please his fans but to celebrate another 12 months of film highlights. After the pre-requisite montage of clips from 2008's finest (why Hancock and Iron Man you ask), the awards begin.
The Biggest Night For Film In The UK The most expected recipient of the night was undoubtedly the late Heath Ledger winning Best Supporting Actor for his maniacal Joker in Christopher Nolan's epic The Dark Knight. Little surprise also that Kate Winslet should scoop the Leading Actress BAFTA for her performance in The Reader after her success at the preceeding Golden Globes ceremony, or indeed that Pixar would walk away with Best Animation for their masterpiece Wall-E.
Rourke Beats The Odds For Leading Male Most surprising perhaps was the strength of the nominations and the consequent result of the Leading Actor award. All worthy competitors, Frank Langella's rousing performance in Frost/Nixon, Dev Patel's underdog in the crowd-pleaser Slumdog Millionaire, Sean Penn's gay activist in Milk and the biggest contender in the category Brad Pitt for his emotive Benjamin Button.
The academy however spark our nostalgia back to Sylvester Stallone's 1976 smash Rocky, the story of an aging underdog's perseverance against all odds, and they subsequently award Mickey Rourke with the accolade for his role as The Wrestler, arguably his strongest and most affecting screen role to date.
The Slumdog Triumphs Over All It was clear, however, that despite the surprise award recipients, including the fact that Pixar’s Wall-E lost out to Slumdog Millionaire in the Best Sound category, the night deservedly belonged to director Danny Boyle and all involved in the making of the first masterpiece of 2009, Slumdog Millionaire. The success of the film goes to prove that in this gloomy time of recession we all need to experience the feel good factor.
Winning 7 of its 11 nominations, Boyle has a career high on his hands that even betters 1996's Trainspotting. Boyle's persistent smile reached its worthy climax as Slumdog was announced Best Film to tumultous applause. The question on everyone's minds now is will the American academy favour excellent make-up and schmaltz (Button) or will Dev Patel's underdog triumph? (Slumdog) Judging by these results it seems fair to say that we all know the true winner, without having to phone a friend.
