Slumdog Millionaire

Academy Awards Best Picture, Best Director: Slumdog Millionaire, Danny Boyle. The makers capitalized on the iconic youth of Freida Pinto and Dev Patel moulding them into, what one film critic called, a kind of "currency of joy".  Appearing everywhere on advertising posters and TV news, providing a fresh-faced tonic to the economic gloom suffocating the US and the world. Slumdog Millionaire, was also the only one of the five nominated best pictures that had a shamelessly happy ending.

It shone compared to the rival tales of doomed love (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), Dir. David Fincher (who btw. also directed Fight Club starring Brad Pitt and Ed Norton). Button received awards for best art direction, visual effects and make-up.

Or, Stephen Daldry’s trial of a Nazi war criminal (The Reader) ; Or the serious battle of words involving a former president whose legacy still haunts the US (Frost/Nixon), and then there’s the  assassination, the true story of a gay icon (Milk), whose message of equality was patently ignored by all.

Danny Boyle is an Academy Award-winning English director and film producer, best known for his work on films such as Trainspotting, The Beach, Sunshine, and 28 Days Later.

Also nominated for Best Director: Stephen Daldry for The Reader, David Fincher for Button, Ron Howard for Frost/Nixon, Gus Van Sant for Milk. 

Slumdog also swept the board with awards for original song, original score, best sound mixing, editing, cinematography and best adapted screenplay.