femalenetwork.com

Dark horse Slumdog Millionaire emerged the biggest winner in Hollywood's most prestigious awards event, as it took home Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and five more post-production nods.

 

This year's Academy Awards also recognized Kate Winslet's performance in The Reader, her first win after six Oscar nominations since 1995. "I'd be lying if I haven't made a version of this speech before. I think I was probably 8 years old and staring into the bathroom mirror and this would have been a shampoo bottle. Well, it's not a shampoo bottle now," an ecstatic Kate told the audience.

Sean Penn emerged victorious in the awards battle against Mickey Rourke, among others, winning his second Oscar for playing gay American politician Harvey Milk in the biopic Milk, which also won Best Original Screenplay.
 
The Ledger Family received the Best Supporting Actor award in behalf of the late Heath Ledger for his performance in The Dark Knight. Incidentally, Ledger is only the second actor to be posthumously honored by the Academy Awards.

Penelope Cruz, meanwhile, became the second Spanish actress to win an Oscar for her supporting role in Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona—just a year after Javier Bardem won Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Coen Brothers' No Country For Old Men.

See the complete list of winners on the next page.