Slumdog Millionaire flew the flag for Britain at the Academy Awards in Los Angeles, Danny Boyle's sleeper success taking home eight Oscars including Best Picture, Director and Adapted Screenplay.
Click here for Kate Winslet in winners gallery
Click here for the glitzy red-carpet slideshow
It got the better of David Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which could only manage three gongs, with British success also in the Best Documentary Feature for Man on Wire and Michael O'Connor's costume design win for The Duchess.
Three of the four acting awards went to the favourites with Kate Winslet finally putting her Oscar woe behind her to take Best Actress for The Reader, however comeback king Mickey Rourke lost out to Milk pal Sean Penn in the Best Actor clash.
The late Heath Ledger's family accepted his Best Supporting Actor award for his manic turn as The Joker in The Dark Knight, while there was wild applause for Penelope Cruz's Best Supporting Actress win for Vicky Cristina Barcelona.
With Jerry Lewis getting a humanitarian award and plenty of inspired skits, it was a ceremony to savour. Check out all the winners from our live coverage of the biggest movie night of the year...
Slumdog makes it a nice round eight for the evening with producer Christian Colson stepping up to lift the final award of the night, in what proved to be a huge night for the best of the Brits.
Click here to see the new Best Picture winner
There was a growing feeling in insider circles that Sean Penn would derail the Mickey Rourke comeback train and it proved right, as Rourke's old pal pipped him to the Best Actor crown for his sensational performance as a real-life gay activist in Gus Van Sant's Milk.
Click here to see Sean shine in the biopic
She's done it! Kate Winslet has avoided a horrible statistic as the first woman to go winless six times, by nabbing Best Actress for her thoroughly absorbing performance as a suspected Nazi war criminal in The Reader. The British have taken over Tinseltown.
Click here to see Kate's riveting role
Iconic British director Danny Boyle has scooped an Oscar, after his first taste of the nervous nomination process, his infectious, challenging personality making Slumdog the little film that could mere months after it looked like going straight to DVD!
Click here to witness Danny's Indian feel-good tale
Japan has another reason to celebrate as Departures held off the likes of Waltz With Bashir and Cannes winner The Class to claim the Best Foreign Language Film. It tells the tale of a young cellist, who loses his job and has to prepare corpses at a funeral home. Strange, but affecting.
Slumdog, predictably if we're going to be honest, is picking up momentum heading into the blue riband categories near the end with A.R. Rahman winning for Best Original Score thanks to the lovely Indian music throughout the film. He then doubles up with Best Song, alongside Sampooran Singh Gulzar, for the movie's catchy "Jai Ho".
Click here to hear A.R.'s notes realised
Slumdog picks up another two awards as the ceremony moves into the latter half, Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke and Resul Pookutty celebrating victory for Sound and Chris Dickens adding to his Bafta for Editing.
Click here to revel in Slumdog's talented bunch
The Dark Knight was a technical monster for all those involved and Richard King is duly rewarded with the Best Achievement in Sound Editing.
Click here to hear Richard's prowess
Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton and Craig Barron's combined efforts on The Curious Case of Benjamin Button saw them win the Best Achievement in Visual Effects on the back of some mind boggling work on the epic.
Click here to see Button's CGI magnificence
Meanwhile, Megan Mylan gets a well deserved round of applause for winning Best Documentary Short for Smile Pinki, the real-life tale of a girl in rural India whose cleft lip has made her a social outcast.
After scooping the Best British Film award at the Baftas, Man on Wire has made it a win double with Brits James Marsh and Simon Chinn walking off with Best Documentary Feature in Los Angeles.
Click here to see the stunning high wire docu
No surprise in the Best Supporting Actor category as the late, great Heath Ledger is awarded a posthumous Oscar for his dark, daring turn as The Joker in Christopher Nolan's epic blockbuster The Dark Knight.
Click here to see Heath's intense villain
Jochen Alexander Freydank won the prestigious Live Action Short award for his insightful tale Spielzeugland, which chronicles the story of a German boy in 1942 who believes his Jewish neighbours are going to Toyland.
Oxford native Anthony Dod Mantle makes it Slumdog 2, Button 2 by bringing home the Cinematography Oscar for his staggering work on the Mumbai based Brit flick. Like O'Connor, it's his first nomination so not a bad track record thus far for them both at the Academy Awards.
Click here to see Anthony's breathtaking shots
Michael O'Connor makes it another happy night for Blighty by following up his Bafta Costume Design win with the Oscar for The Duchess.
Click here to see Michael's lavish costumes
Donald Graham Burt and Victor J. Zolfo win the Best Achievement in Art Direction for their beautifully realised work on The Curious Case of Benjamin Button with Greg Cannom taking home the Best Achievement in Makeup for David Fincher's weepie.
Click here to see the amazing Button crew's work
Japan wins the Best Animated Short with Kunio Katô's La maison en petits cubes, an enchanting tale about an old man who looks back on his life in a world gradually flooding with water. Great to see the Academy giving short filmmakers the spotlight.
The Best Animated Feature race was unbelievably strong this year, however the little robot Wall.E has got the nod ahead of the crime fighting canine Bolt and Jack Black's hilarious Kung Fu Panda. Pixar genius Andrew Stanton picks up the award.
Click here to see wonderful Wall.E woo Eve
Simon Beaufoy bags the first British award of the night, and Slumdog Millionaire's opener too, thanks to his moving adaptation of Vikas Swarup's excellent novel "Q & A". He lost out for The Full Monty in 1997, therefore you can understand why he's so pleased.
Click here to see Simon's Slumdog script magic
The second award of the night levels the playing field as In Bruges writer/director Martin McDonagh loses out to Milk's Dustin Lance Black in the Best Original Screenplay category. Both cracking scripts, to be fair, and we can expect more guilty pleasures from McDonagh in the future.
Click here to see Dustin's words come to life
Europe 1, USA 0 as Spanish siren Penelope Cruz gets the Best Supporting Actress gong for Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona.
Click here for Vicky Cristina Barcelona video
He serenades Kate Winslet in his opening number, much to the audience's delight, before we get to the first big award of the night.
Aussie superstar Hugh Jackman is presenting the 81st Academy Awards, therefore we can expect some cute song and dance numbers from him instead of the film jokes from previous presenters.
