Kate Winslet wins Best Actress for her performance in ‘The Reader’ ‘

Kate Winslet wins Best Actress for her performance in ‘The Reader’ ‘

Slumdog Millionaire’ won seven awards at the BAFTAs
The rags-to-riches tale was named Best Film and Best Adapted Screenplay,
while Danny Boyle was honoured as Best Director.
It also won prizes for music, cinematography, editing and sound.
Mickey Rourke triumphed in the Best Actor category, being recognised for his
acclaimed comeback performance in ‘The Wrestler’.
The actor – who has spent 15 years in the Hollywood wilderness - made an
emotional acceptance speech, in which he said: “It’s such a pleasure to be
back here, out of the darkness.”
He also praised his publicist, Paula Woods, for “having the hardest job in
showbusiness – telling me where to go, what to do, when to do it, how to
dress…”
Kate Winslet was perfectly composed when she accepted the statuette for Best
Actress for her performance in ‘The Reader’.
The 33-year-old British star – who sobbed and gasped her way through her
Golden Globes acceptance speech last month – thanked her parents in the
audience “who I will not look at right now, otherwise I will burst into
tears”.
Australian actor Heath Ledger – who died of an accidental prescription drug
overdose last year – was posthumously received the Best Supporting Actor
prize for his grim portrayal of The Joker in Batman blockbuster ‘The Dark
Knight’.
The star-studded audience was in tears as the film’s producer Charles Roven
accepted the statue on behalf of Ledger’s family.
Roven said: “Knowing Heath, I know that he would be very humbled just to be
in the company of the other performers that were also nominated this
evening.
“He was, as an actor and a professional and a human being, one of a kind.”
Winslet, Rourke, Meryl Streep, Daniel Craig and Penelope Cruz braved the wet
London weather to walk the red carpet at the Royal Opera House in Covent
Garden.
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were also in attendance, but both saw their
films overlooked.
Pitt’s ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’ - nominated for 11 awards -
only won three, while Jolie’s ‘Changeling’, acknowledged in eight
categories, went home empty-handed.

British Academy Film Awards 2009 full list of winners:

Best Film – ‘Slumdog Millionaire’
Best British Film – ‘Man on Wire’
Best Actor – Mickey Rourke (‘The Wrestler’)
Best Actress – Kate Winslet (‘The Reader’)
Best Supporting Actor – Heath Ledger (‘The Dark Knight’)
Best Supporting Actress – Penelope Cruz (‘Vicky Cristina Barcelona’)
Best Director – Danny Boyle (‘Slumdog Millionaire’)
Best Original Screenplay – ‘In Bruges’ (Martin McDonagh)
Best Adapted Screenplay – ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ (Simon Beaufoy)
Film Not in the English Language – ‘I’ve Loved You So Long’
Best Animated Film – ‘Wall.E’
The Carl Foreman Award for Most Promising Newcomer – Steve McQueen
(director/writer of ‘Hunger’)
Orange Rising Star Award – Noel Clarke
Music – ‘Slumdog Millionaire’
Cinematography – ‘Slumdog Millionaire’
Editing – ‘Slumdog Millionaire’
Production Design – ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’
Costume Design – ‘The Duchess’
Sound – ‘Slumdog Millionaire’
Special Visual Effects – ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’
Make Up and Hair – ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’
Short Animation – ‘Wallace and Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death’
Short Film – ‘September’
The Academy Fellowship – Terry Gilliam