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A ragtag group of Indian orphans triumphed at the Academy Awards on Sunday as Slumdog Millionaire took top honors. The movie, an against-all-odds love story, resonated with recession-weary moviegoers.

The small-budget British film - shot in the teeming slums of Mumbai - was named Best Picture as widely predicted and won seven other Oscars.

At the climax of the night, the stage was swarmed by jubilant members of the Slumdog cast and crew, including several school children who were plucked from Mumbai's shanty towns to appear in the movie.

British filmmaker Danny Boyle was named Best Director for the often dark but ultimately hopeful tale of a young orphan who risks it all for love and a shot at instant wealth as a TV game show contestant.

"It is a love story but is heavily disguised," he said. "The spine appears to be the game show but ... there's another story underneath, which is the love story."

Adding to the international flavor of this year's Oscars, hosted by Australian stage and film star Hugh Jackman, three of the night's four acting awards went to non-Americans.

Kate Winslet of Britain was named Best Actress for her dramatic turn as a former Nazi prison guard who has a love affair with a teenage boy in The Reader.

Penelope Cruz broke through as the first Spanish actress to claim an Academy Award, winning for her supporting role in the Woody Allen film Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

And Australian Heath Ledger, who died last year of an accidental prescription pill overdose, was named Best Supporting Actor for his role as the evil Joker in the Batman blockbuster The Dark Knight.

Sean Penn, the lone American among the newly honored performers, was voted Best Actor for his portrait of slain gay rights leader Harvey Milk in the political drama Milk.

But Slumdog, shot on a modest budget of $15 million, was the big winner. Along with Best Picture and Best Director honors, the film also earned Oscars for cinematography, sound mixing, film editing, original score and song.

The movie's triumph restored a kind of feel-good mood to the Oscars amid the global economic downturn, following several years in which dark dramas, including No Country for Old Men, The Departed and Crash topped the Oscars.

The only arena in which the film was overshadowed was in the acting categories, where A-list stars earned the nominations over the relatively unknown cast of Slumdog.

Winslet, a six-time nominee, fought back tears when accepting her trophy and remembered a time as a child when she dreamed of winning it.

"I would be lying if I said I haven't made a version of this speech before. I think I was probably 8-years-old and staring into the bathroom mirror," she said.

（英語點津 Helen 編輯）

About the broadcaster:

Nancy Matos is a foreign expert at China Daily Website. Born and raised in Vancouver, Canada, Nancy is a graduate of the Broadcast Journalism and Media program at the British Columbia Institute of Technology. Her journalism career in broadcast and print has taken her around the world from New York to Portugal and now Beijing. Nancy is happy to make the move to China and join the China Daily team.