Man on Wire-Philippe Petit

This years Oscar award for the best documentary was won by 'Man on Wire'.This unique documenary directed by James Marsh was based on Philippe Petit's high-wire walk between the Twin Towers(WTC) in New York in 1974. The documentary is based on Philippe Petit's book titled 'To Reach the Clouds'.This book was recently released with the new title 'Man on Wire'.

Philippe Petit,born on August 13,1949 is a French high wire artist,who is also well known for being a magician,unicyclist, pantomime.This documentary 'Man on Wire' is an awesome one as James Marsh has creatively converted the original events into a dramatic one.Though Philippe Petit ,while accepting his oscar speech said that he was delivering the shortest acceptance speech..he went on to add a few more words after that ! Here is his speech:"The shortest speech in Oscar history. Yes! But I always break the rule. I break my own rules very quickly..."     

Immediately after receiving his Oscar ,Petit balanced the Oscar statue upside down on his chin!

Wall-E

Wall-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth) won the Best Animated feature at this year's Academy Awards.The movie is directed and written by Andrew Stanton and produced by Pixar Animation Studios. The story is about the distant unrealistic future, where a robot named Wall E is left to clean the earth that is covered by garbage due to the products that is sold by multi-national Buy N Large corporation.WALL-E is left in this earth with just another pet cockroach. Later another robot named Eve is sent to the earth to find if there is life existing on earth still.Life turns wonderful for WALL-e when he falls in love with Eve.Eventually both their lives turn adventurous when they move into outer space ,which turns the destiny of robots and human beings.

The special feature of this film is that majority of the characters in this film do not have human voices. Instead these characters communicate through body language as well as special robotic sounds which are designed by Ben Burtt. This animated feature was released in US and Canada in June 2008.The movie was ranked #1 at the box office during the opening weekend.For Pixar film it marked their third highest grossing film in the opening weekend. The movie is distributed by Walt Disney Pictures.

Sean Penn

This year’s prestigious award for Best Actor at the Oscars went Sean Penn for his outstanding performance in the movie “Milk”. The movie in total won 2 awards,the other one being Best Original screenplay for Dustin Lance Black Sean Penn had won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his outstanding performance in the film “Mystic River” in the year 2003.Sean Penn , to his credit has been nominated five times in the Oscars for Best Actor .

Sean Penn in addition to being an actor,is a film maker as well as political activist. His debut film was “Taps” in the year 1981 where he played the character of Cadet Captain Alex Dwyer.His directorial debut began in the year 1991 with the movie “The Indian Runner” . This film was based on Bruce Springsteen’s song “Highway Patrolman”. From then on he has directed 3 more films “The Crossing Guard”- 1995, “The Pledge” - 2001, and “Into the Wild” - 2007.

And the winners of the 81st Academy Awards....

	Best Picture: 'SlumDog Millionaire'
	Best Director: 'SlumDog Millionaire'
	Best Original Score:A.R Rehman 'SlumDog Millionaire'
	Best Actor: Sean Penn 'Milk'
	Best Actress: Kate Winslet 'The Reader'
	Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger 'The Dark Knight'
	Best Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona'
	Best Animated Feature Film: 'Wall-E'

Best Foreign Film:
'Departures'
Japan

Best Original Screenplay:
'Milk'
Dustin Lance Black

Best Adapted Screenplay :
'Slumdog Millionaire'
Simon Beaufoy

Best Documentary Feature:
'Man on Wire'

The 81st Academy Awards

The most awaited event at the beginning of this year, the Oscars, the 81st Academy awards is to be held at Kodak Theatre in Hollywood on Feb 22nd.The actor Hugh Jackman would be hosting this year’s Oscars for the first time.

Here are some of the movies nominated for the oscars:
Changeling, The Visitor, Doubt, Milk, Frost/Nixon, The Dark Knight



Lets keep our fingers crossed until the 22nd.