2009

The 81st Academy Awards | 2009
Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Honoring movies released in 2008
Highlights
Memorable Moments
  • Sean Penn
    Best Actor winner for Milk, with past winners Michael Douglas, Adrien Brody, Ben Kingsley, Anthony Hopkins and Robert De Niro
  • Dustin Lance Black
    Original Screenplay winner for Milk
  • Heath Ledger
    The Supporting Actor winner's father Kim Ledger, mother Sally Bell and sister Kate Ledger accept his Oscar for The Dark Knight

Nominees

Actor in a Leading Role

Winner

Sean Penn

Milk

Nominees

Richard Jenkins

The Visitor

Frank Langella

Frost/Nixon

Brad Pitt

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Mickey Rourke

The Wrestler

Actor in a Supporting Role

Winner

Heath Ledger

The Dark Knight

Nominees

Josh Brolin

Milk

Robert Downey Jr.

Tropic Thunder

Philip Seymour Hoffman

Doubt

Michael Shannon

Revolutionary Road

Actress in a Leading Role

Winner

Kate Winslet

The Reader

Nominees

Anne Hathaway

Rachel Getting Married

Angelina Jolie

Changeling

Melissa Leo

Frozen River

Meryl Streep

Doubt

Actress in a Supporting Role

Winner

Penélope Cruz

Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Nominees

Amy Adams

Doubt

Viola Davis

Doubt

Taraji P. Henson

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Marisa Tomei

The Wrestler

Animated Feature Film

Winner

WALL-E

Andrew Stanton

Nominees

Bolt

Chris Williams and Byron Howard

Kung Fu Panda

John Stevenson and Mark Osborne

Art Direction

Winner

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Art Direction: Donald Graham Burt; Set Decoration: Victor J. Zolfo

Nominees

Changeling

Art Direction: James J. Murakami; Set Decoration: Gary Fettis

The Dark Knight

Art Direction: Nathan Crowley; Set Decoration: Peter Lando

The Duchess

Art Direction: Michael Carlin; Set Decoration: Rebecca Alleway

Revolutionary Road

Art Direction: Kristi Zea; Set Decoration: Debra Schutt

Cinematography

Winner

Slumdog Millionaire

Anthony Dod Mantle

Nominees

Changeling

Tom Stern

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Claudio Miranda

The Dark Knight

Wally Pfister

The Reader

Chris Menges and Roger Deakins

Costume Design

Winner

The Duchess

Michael O'Connor

Nominees

Australia

Catherine Martin

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Jacqueline West

Milk

Danny Glicker

Revolutionary Road

Albert Wolsky

Directing

Winner

Slumdog Millionaire

Danny Boyle

Nominees

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

David Fincher

Frost/Nixon

Ron Howard

Milk

Gus Van Sant

The Reader

Stephen Daldry

Documentary (Feature)

Winner

Man on Wire

James Marsh and Simon Chinn

Nominees

The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)

Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath

Encounters at the End of the World

Werner Herzog and Henry Kaiser

The Garden

Scott Hamilton Kennedy

Trouble the Water

Tia Lessin and Carl Deal

Documentary (Short Subject)

Winner

Smile Pinki

Megan Mylan

Nominees

The Conscience of Nhem En

Steven Okazaki

The Final Inch

Irene Taylor Brodsky and Tom Grant

The Witness - From the Balcony of Room 306

Adam Pertofsky and Margaret Hyde

Film Editing

Winner

Slumdog Millionaire

Chris Dickens

Nominees

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall

The Dark Knight

Lee Smith

Frost/Nixon

Mike Hill and Dan Hanley

Milk

Elliot Graham

Foreign Language Film

Winner

Departures

Japan

Nominees

The Baader Meinhof Complex

Germany

The Class

France

Revanche

Austria

Waltz with Bashir

Israel

Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award

Winner

Jerry Lewis

Makeup

Winner

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Greg Cannom

Nominees

The Dark Knight

John Caglione, Jr. and Conor O'Sullivan

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Mike Elizalde and Thom Floutz

Music (Original Score)

Winner

Slumdog Millionaire

A.R. Rahman

Nominees

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Alexandre Desplat

Defiance

James Newton Howard

Milk

Danny Elfman

WALL-E

Thomas Newman

Music (Original Song)

Winner

Slumdog Millionaire

Jai Ho in "Slumdog Millionaire" Music by A.R. Rahman; Lyric by Gulzar

Nominees

WALL-E

Down To Earth in "WALL-E" Music by Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman; Lyric by Peter Gabriel

Slumdog Millionaire

O Saya in "Slumdog Millionaire" Music and Lyric by A.R. Rahman and Maya Arulpragasam

Best Picture

Winner

Slumdog Millionaire

Christian Colson, Producer

Nominees

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Frost/Nixon

Brian Grazer, Ron Howard and Eric Fellner, Producers

Milk

Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen, Producers

The Reader

Anthony Minghella, Sydney Pollack, Donna Gigliotti and Redmond Morris, Producers

Short Film (Animated)

Winner

La Maison en Petits Cubes

Kunio Kato

Nominees

Lavatory - Lovestory

Konstantin Bronzit

Oktapodi

Emud Mokhberi and Thierry Marchand

Presto

Doug Sweetland

This Way Up

Alan Smith and Adam Foulkes

Short Film (Live Action)

Winner

Spielzeugland (Toyland)

Jochen Alexander Freydank

Nominees

Auf der Strecke (On the Line)

Reto Caffi

Manon on the Asphalt

Elizabeth Marre and Olivier Pont

New Boy

Steph Green and Tamara Anghie

The Pig

The Pig

Sound Editing

Winner

The Dark Knight

Richard King

Nominees

Iron Man

Frank Eulner and Christopher Boyes

Slumdog Millionaire

Glenn Freemantle and Tom Sayers

WALL-E

Ben Burtt and Matthew Wood

Wanted

Wylie Stateman

Sound Mixing

Winner

Slumdog Millionaire

Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke and Resul Pookutty

Nominees

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce and Mark Weingarten

The Dark Knight

Lora Hirschberg, Gary Rizzo and Ed Novick

WALL-E

Tom Myers, Michael Semanick and Ben Burtt

Wanted

Wanted

Visual Effects

Winner

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton and Craig Barron

Nominees

The Dark Knight

Nick Davis, Chris Corbould, Tim Webber and Paul Franklin

Iron Man

John Nelson, Ben Snow, Dan Sudick and Shane Mahan

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

Winner

Slumdog Millionaire

Screenplay by Simon Beaufoy

Nominees

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Screenplay by Eric Roth; Screen story by Eric Roth and Robin Swicord

Doubt

Written by John Patrick Shanley

Frost/Nixon

Screenplay by Peter Morgan

The Reader

Screenplay by David Hare

Writing (Original Screenplay)

Winner

Milk

Written by Dustin Lance Black

Nominees

Frozen River

Written by Courtney Hunt

Happy-Go-Lucky

Written by Mike Leigh

In Bruges

Written by Martin McDonagh

WALL-E

Screenplay by Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon; Original story by Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter
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B
The Baader Meinhof Complex
1 Nomination
Foreign Language Film - Germany
The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)
1 Nomination
Documentary (Feature) - Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath
Bolt
1 Nomination
Animated Feature Film - Chris Williams and Byron Howard