<P> Slumdog Millionaire won eight awards, the most of the evening, including Best Picture and Best Director for Danny Boyle . Other winners were The Curious Case of Benjamin Button with three awards, The Dark Knight and Milk with two awards, and Departures, The Duchess, La Maison en Petits Cubes, Man on Wire, The Reader, Smile Pinki, Toyland, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, and WALL - E with one . The telecast garnered almost 37 million viewers in the United States . </P> <P> The nominees for the 81st Academy Awards were announced on January 22, 2009, at 5: 38 a.m. PST (13: 38 UTC) at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, California, by Sid Ganis, president of the Academy, and the actor Forest Whitaker . The Curious Case of Benjamin Button received the most nominations with thirteen (the ninth film to garner that many nominations); Slumdog Millionaire came in second with ten . </P> <P> The winners were announced during the awards ceremony on February 22, 2009 . Slumdog Millionaire was the eleventh film to win Best Picture without any acting nominations . Sean Penn became the ninth person to win Best Lead Actor twice . Best Supporting Actor winner Heath Ledger became the second performer to win a posthumous acting Oscar . The first actor to receive this distinction was Peter Finch who posthumously won Best Actor for Network two months after his death in January 1977 . With its six nominations, Best Animated Feature Film winner WALL - E tied with 1991's Beauty and the Beast as the most nominated animated film in Academy Awards history . </P> <P> Winners are listed first, highlighted in boldface . </P>

Which actor won the oscar for best actor in 2009