Winners of the 81st Academy Awards

Winners of the 81st Academy Awards were announced on Feb. 22, 2009. Best Picture honors went to Slumdog Millionaire which also received seven other awards. Sean Penn and Kate Winslet took home the awards for Best Actor and Best Actress. Penelope Cruz was named Best Supporting Actress and the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor went to the late Heath Ledger.

View a complete list of the 81st Academy Awards nominees.

Performance by an actor in a leading role

Sean Penn in Milk (Focus Features)

Performance by an actor in a supporting role

Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight (Warner Bros.)

Performance by an actress in a leading role

Kate Winslet in The Reader (The Weinstein Company)

Performance by an actress in a supporting role

Penélope Cruz in Vicky Cristina Barcelona (The Weinstein Company)

Best animated feature film of the year

WALL-E (Walt Disney), Andrew Stanton

Achievement in art direction

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Paramount and Warner Bros.), Art Direction: Donald Graham Burt, Set Decoration: Victor J. Zolfo

Achievement in cinematography

Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight), Anthony Dod Mantle

Achievement in costume design

The Duchess (Paramount Vantage, Pathé and BBC Films), Michael O''Connor

Achievement in directing

Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight), Danny Boyle

Best documentary feature

Man on Wire (Magnolia Pictures), A Wall to Wall Production, James Marsh and Simon Chinn

Best documentary short subject

Smile Pinki A Principe Production, Megan Mylan

Achievement in film editing

Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight), Chris Dickens

Best foreign language film of the year

Departures (Regent Releasing), A Departures Film Partners Production, Japan

Achievement in makeup

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Paramount and Warner Bros.), Greg Cannom

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)

Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight), A.R. Rahman

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)

Jai Ho from Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight), Music by A.R. Rahman, Lyric by Gulzar

Best motion picture of the year

Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight), A Celador Films Production, Christian Colson, Producer

Best animated short film

La Maison en Petits Cubes A Robot Communications Production, Kunio Kato

Best live action short film

Spielzeugland (Toyland) A Mephisto Film Production, Jochen Alexander Freydank

Achievement in sound editing

The Dark Knight (Warner Bros.), Richard King

Achievement in sound mixing

Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight), Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke and Resul Pookutty

Achievement in visual effects

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Paramount and Warner Bros.), Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton and Craig Barron

Adapted screenplay

Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight), Screenplay by Simon Beaufoy

Original screenplay

Milk (Focus Features), Written by Dustin Lance Black