The results are in for the 2009 81st Acad­emy Awards — Heath Ledger has won the Oscar for Best Actor in a Sup­port­ing Role for his por­trayal of the Joker. The Dark Knight also picked up another award for Best Sound Edit­ing. In The Dark Knight’s six other nom­i­na­tions it often lost out to either the Curi­ous Case of Ben­jamin But­ton or Slum­dog Mil­lion­aire, the lat­ter of which won 8 in total includ­ing Best Pic­ture and Best Director.

Full results list after the break…
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On the eve of Oscars night 2009 The Dark Knight’s total inter­na­tional earn­ings soared past the one bil­lion mark, one of only four films to ever do so (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, Titanic and Lord of the Rings: Return of the King being the oth­ers). The re-release in IMAX loca­tions finally tipped The Dark Knight over the final élite boundary.

The fig­ures break down as:

Domes­tic: $533,090,262 53.3%
For­eign: $467,991,898 46.7%

What a day to be com­par­ing the $1bn mak­ing Dark Knight with films such as Titanic and Return of the King — movies that swept the Acad­emy Awards up in stun­ning fash­ion — each grab­bing 11 Oscars includ­ing Best Pic­ture and Best Direc­tor; mak­ing the Academy’s 2009 Best Pic­ture and Best Direc­tor Dark Knight snubs even more galling. As it is, all our chips lie on the Best Sup­port­ing Actor where we are all cross­ing our fin­gers and hop­ing that Heath Ledger can pick up that much deserved posthu­mous Oscar award for his stun­ning por­trayal as The Joker.

Other cat­e­gories include: Art Direc­tion, Cin­e­matog­ra­phy, Film Edit­ing, Makeup, Sound Edit­ing, Sound Mix­ing, and Visual Effects. The Dark Knight could win a total of 8 awards, which would be a grand enough sweep minus the big two, although this is pre­dicted as very unlikely.

The BBC have put up the BAFTA accep­tance speeches, below is the speech made on behalf of Heath Ledger on win­ning Best Sup­port­ing Actor:

The British movie awards have just ended, Slum­dog Mil­lion­aire swept up the major­ity of the awards whilst The Dark Knight picked up just the one — Heath Ledger posthu­mously awarded Best Sup­port­ing Actor:

Sup­port­ing actor
Robert Downey Jr — Tropic Thun­der
Bren­dan Glee­son — In Bruges
Heath Ledger — The Dark Knight
Brad Pitt — Burn After Read­ing
Philip Sey­mour Hoff­man — Doubt

View the full results at the BBC.

Last night was the 15th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, usu­ally seen as a very good indi­ca­tion of who the Oscar win­ners shall be. Heath Ledger’s The Joker pulled through fend­ing off com­pe­ti­tion from the likes of Downey Jr. and Josh Brolin:

Out­stand­ing Actor In A Sup­port­ing Role

Heath Ledger — The Dark Knight
Phillip Sey­mour Hoff­man — Doubt
Dev Patel — Slum­dog Mil­lion­aire
Robert Downey Jr. — Tropic Thun­der
Josh Brolin — Milk
WINNER: Heath Ledger — The Dark Knight

The signs are look­ing good, and given TDK’s Best Pic­ture and Best Direc­tor snubs, all our chips and Heath Ledger’s are in on this one.

TDK also brought home a sec­ond award from the SAGs for “Out­stand­ing Per­for­mance by a Stunt Ensem­ble in a Motion Pic­ture”.

The Dark knight has picked up 8 Oscar nom­i­na­tions for Best Sup­port­ing Actor, Art Direc­tion, Cin­e­matog­ra­phy, Film Edit­ing, Makeup, Sound Edit­ing, Sound Mix­ing, and Visual Effects. Most impor­tantly Heath Ledger is up there amongst Downey Jr., Hoff­man, Brolin and Shan­non in the Best Sup­port­ing Actor category.

Sad to see it miss out on the big ones though — Best Pic­ture and Best Director.

Sun­day Feb­ru­ary 22nd is the date for your books.

BEST PICTURE:
The Curi­ous Case of Ben­jamin But­ton (Para­mount and Warner Bros.), A Kennedy/Marshall Pro­duc­tion, Kath­leen Kennedy, Frank Mar­shall and Ceán Chaf­fin, Pro­duc­ers
Frost/Nixon (Uni­ver­sal), A Uni­ver­sal Pic­tures, Imag­ine Enter­tain­ment and Work­ing Title Production,Brian Grazer, Ron Howard and Eric Fell­ner, Pro­duc­ers
Milk (Focus Fea­tures), A Groundswell and Jinks/Cohen Com­pany Pro­duc­tion, Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen, Pro­duc­ers
The Reader (The Wein­stein Com­pany), A Mirage Enter­prises and Neunte Babels­berg Film GmbH Pro­duc­tion, Nom­i­nees to be deter­mined
Slum­dog Mil­lion­aire (Fox Search­light), A Celador Films Production,Christian Col­son, Producer

DIRECTING:
The Curi­ous Case of Ben­jamin But­ton (Para­mount and Warner Bros.), David Fincher
Frost/Nixon (Uni­ver­sal), Ron Howard
Milk (Focus Fea­tures), Gus Van Sant
The Reader (The Wein­stein Com­pany), Stephen Daldry
Slum­dog Mil­lion­aire (Fox Search­light), Danny Boyle

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE:
Richard Jenk­ins — The Vis­i­tor (Over­ture Films)
Frank Lan­gella — Frost/Nixon (Uni­ver­sal)
Sean Penn — Milk (Focus Fea­tures)
Brad Pitt — The Curi­ous Case of Ben­jamin But­ton (Para­mount and Warner Bros.)
Mickey Rourke — The Wrestler (Fox Searchlight)

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE:
Anne Hath­away — Rachel Get­ting Mar­ried (Sony Pic­tures Clas­sics)
Angelina Jolie — Changeling (Uni­ver­sal)
Melissa Leo — Frozen River (Sony Pic­tures Clas­sics)
Meryl Streep — Doubt (Mira­max)
Kate Winslet — The Reader (The Wein­stein Company)

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE:
Josh Brolin — Milk (Focus Fea­tures)
Robert Downey Jr. — Tropic Thun­der (Dream­Works, Dis­trib­uted by DreamWorks/Paramount)
Philip Sey­mour Hoff­man — Doubt (Mira­max)
Heath Ledger — The Dark Knight (Warner Bros.)
Michael Shan­non — Rev­o­lu­tion­ary Road (Dream­Works, Dis­trib­uted by Para­mount Vantage)

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE:
Amy Adams — Doubt (Mira­max)
Pené­lope Cruz — Vicky Cristina Barcelona (The Wein­stein Com­pany)
Viola Davis — Doubt (Mira­max)
Taraji P. Hen­son — The Curi­ous Case of Ben­jamin But­ton (Para­mount and Warner Bros.)
Marisa Tomei — The Wrestler (Fox Searchlight)

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:
The Curi­ous Case of Ben­jamin But­ton (Para­mount and Warner Bros.), Screen­play by Eric Roth, Screen story by Eric Roth and Robin Swicord
Doubt (Mira­max), Writ­ten by John Patrick Shan­ley
Frost/Nixon (Uni­ver­sal), Screen­play by Peter Mor­gan
The Reader (The Wein­stein Com­pany), Screen­play by David Hare
Slum­dog Mil­lion­aire (Fox Search­light), Screen­play by Simon Beaufoy

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:
Frozen River (Sony Pic­tures Clas­sics), Writ­ten by Court­ney Hunt
Happy-Go-Lucky (Mira­max), Writ­ten by Mike Leigh
In Bruges (Focus Fea­tures), Writ­ten by Mar­tin McDon­agh
Milk (Focus Fea­tures), Writ­ten by Dustin Lance Black
WALL•E (Walt Dis­ney), Screen­play by Andrew Stan­ton, Jim Rear­don, Orig­i­nal story by Andrew Stan­ton, Pete Docter

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM:
The Baader Mein­hof Com­plex A Con­stan­tin Film Pro­duc­tion, Ger­many
The Class (Sony Pic­tures Clas­sics), A Haut et Court Pro­duc­tion, France
Depar­tures (Regent Releas­ing), A Depar­tures Film Part­ners Pro­duc­tion, Japan
Revanche (Janus Films), A Prisma Film/Fernseh Pro­duc­tion, Aus­tria
Waltz with Bashir (Sony Pic­tures Clas­sics), A Bridgit Fol­man Film Gang Pro­duc­tion, Israel

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM:
Bolt (Walt Dis­ney), Chris Williams and Byron Howard
Kung Fu Panda (Dream­Works Ani­ma­tion, Dis­trib­uted by Para­mount), John Steven­son and Mark Osborne
WALL•E (Walt Dis­ney), Andrew Stanton

ART DIRECTION:
Changeling (Uni­ver­sal), Art Direc­tion: James J. Murakami, Set Dec­o­ra­tion: Gary Fet­tis
The Curi­ous Case of Ben­jamin But­ton (Para­mount and Warner Bros.), Art Direc­tion: Don­ald Gra­ham Burt, Set Dec­o­ra­tion: Vic­tor J. Zolfo
The Dark Knight (Warner Bros.), Art Direc­tion: Nathan Crow­ley, Set Dec­o­ra­tion: Peter Lando
The Duchess (Para­mount Van­tage, Pathé and BBC Films), Art Direc­tion: Michael Car­lin, Set Dec­o­ra­tion: Rebecca Alle­way
Rev­o­lu­tion­ary Road (Dream­Works, Dis­trib­uted by Para­mount Van­tage), Art Direc­tion: Kristi Zea, Set Dec­o­ra­tion: Debra Schutt

CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Changeling (Uni­ver­sal), Tom Stern
The Curi­ous Case of Ben­jamin But­ton (Para­mount and Warner Bros.), Clau­dio Miranda
The Dark Knight (Warner Bros.), Wally Pfis­ter
The Reader (The Wein­stein Com­pany), Chris Menges and Roger Deakins
Slum­dog Mil­lion­aire (Fox Search­light), Anthony Dod Mantle

COSTUME DESIGN:
Aus­tralia (20th Cen­tury Fox), Cather­ine Mar­tin
The Curi­ous Case of Ben­jamin But­ton (Para­mount and Warner Bros.), Jacque­line West
The Duchess (Para­mount Van­tage, Pathé and BBC Films), Michael O’Connor
Milk (Focus Fea­tures), Danny Glicker
Rev­o­lu­tion­ary Road (Dream­Works, Dis­trib­uted by Para­mount Van­tage), Albert Wolsky

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE:
The Betrayal (Ner­akhoon) (Cin­ema Guild), A Pandin­lao Films Pro­duc­tion, Ellen Kuras and Thav­i­souk Phrasa­vath
Encoun­ters at the End of the World (THINK­Film and Image Enter­tain­ment), A Cre­ative Dif­fer­ences Pro­duc­tion, Werner Her­zog and Henry Kaiser
The Gar­den A Black Val­ley Films Pro­duc­tion, Scott Hamil­ton Kennedy
Man on Wire (Mag­no­lia Pic­tures), A Wall to Wall Pro­duc­tion, James Marsh and Simon Chinn
Trou­ble the Water (Zeit­geist Films), An Else­where Films Pro­duc­tion, Tia Lessin and Carl Deal

FILM EDITING:
The Curi­ous Case of Ben­jamin But­ton (Para­mount and Warner Bros.), Kirk Bax­ter and Angus Wall
The Dark Knight (Warner Bros.), Lee Smith
Frost/Nixon (Uni­ver­sal), Mike Hill and Dan Han­ley
Milk (Focus Fea­tures), Elliot Gra­ham
Slum­dog Mil­lion­aire (Fox Search­light), Chris Dickens

MAKEUP:
The Curi­ous Case of Ben­jamin But­ton (Para­mount and Warner Bros.), Greg Can­nom
The Dark Knight (Warner Bros.), John Caglione, Jr. and Conor O’Sullivan
Hell­boy II: The Golden Army (Uni­ver­sal), Mike Elizalde and Thom Floutz

ORIGINAL SCORE:
The Curi­ous Case of Ben­jamin But­ton (Para­mount and Warner Bros.), Alexan­dre Desplat
Defi­ance (Para­mount Van­tage), James New­ton Howard
Milk (Focus Fea­tures), Danny Elf­man
Slum­dog Mil­lion­aire (Fox Search­light), A.R. Rah­man
WALL•E (Walt Dis­ney), Thomas Newman

ORIGINAL SONG:
“Down to Earth” from WALL•E (Walt Dis­ney), Music by Peter Gabriel and Thomas New­man, Lyric by Peter Gabriel
“Jai Ho” from Slum­dog Mil­lion­aire (Fox Search­light), Music by A.R. Rah­man, Lyric by Gulzar
“O Saya” from Slum­dog Mil­lion­aire (Fox Search­light), Music and Lyric by A.R. Rah­man and­Maya Arulpragasam

SOUND MIXING:
The Curi­ous Case of Ben­jamin But­ton (Para­mount and Warner Bros.), David Parker, Michael Seman­ick, Ren Klyce and Mark Wein­garten
The Dark Knight (Warner Bros.), Lora Hirschberg, Gary Rizzo and Ed Novick
Slum­dog Mil­lion­aire (Fox Search­light), Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke and Resul Pookutty
WALL•E (Walt Disney),Tom Myers, Michael Seman­ick and Ben Burtt
Wanted (Uni­ver­sal), Chris Jenk­ins, Frank A. Mon­taño and Petr Forejt

SOUND EDITING:
The Dark Knight (Warner Bros.), Richard King
Iron Man (Para­mount and Mar­vel Enter­tain­ment), Frank Eul­ner and Christo­pher Boyes
Slum­dog Mil­lion­aire (Fox Search­light), Tom Say­ers
WALL•E (Walt Dis­ney), Ben Burtt and Matthew Wood
Wanted (Universal),Wylie Stateman

VISUAL EFFECTS:
The Curi­ous Case of Ben­jamin But­ton (Para­mount and Warner Bros.), Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dal­ton and Craig Bar­ron
The Dark Knight (Warner Bros.), Nick Davis, Chris Cor­bould, Tim Web­ber and Paul Franklin
Iron Man (Para­mount and Mar­vel Enter­tain­ment), John Nel­son, Ben Snow, Dan Sudick and Shane Mahan

DOCUMENTARY SHORT:
The Con­science of Nhem En A Far­al­lon Films Pro­duc­tion, Steven Okazaki
The Final Inch A Ver­mil­ion Films Pro­duc­tion, Irene Tay­lor Brod­sky and Tom Grant
Smile Pinki A Principe Pro­duc­tion, Megan Mylan
The Wit­ness — From the Bal­cony of Room 306 A Rock Paper Scis­sors Pro­duc­tion, Adam Pertof­sky and Mar­garet Hyde

ANIMATED SHORT FILM:
La Mai­son en Petits Cubes A Robot Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Pro­duc­tion, Kunio Kato
Lava­tory — Lovestory A Mel­nitsa Ani­ma­tion Stu­dio and CTB Film Com­pany Pro­duc­tion, Kon­stan­tin Bronzit
Oktapodi (Talan­tis Films) A Gob­elins, L’école de l’image Pro­duc­tion, Emud Mokhberi and Thierry Marc­hand
Presto (Walt Dis­ney) A Pixar Ani­ma­tion Stu­dios Pro­duc­tion, Doug Sweet­land
This Way Up A Nexus Pro­duc­tion, Alan Smith and Adam Foulkes

LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM:
Auf der Strecke (On the Line) (Ham­burg Short­fil­ma­gency), An Acad­emy of Media Arts Cologne Pro­duc­tion, Reto Caffi
Manon on the Asphalt (La Luna Pro­duc­tions), A La Luna Pro­duc­tion, Eliz­a­beth Marre and Olivier Pont
New Boy (Net­work Ire­land Tele­vi­sion), A Zanz­ibar Films Pro­duc­tion, Steph Green and Tamara Anghie
The Pig An M & M Pro­duc­tion, Tivi Mag­nus­son and Dorte Høgh
Spielzeug­land (Toy­land) A Mephisto Film Pro­duc­tion, Jochen Alexan­der Freydank

Heath Ledger has posthu­mously won the award of Best Actor in a Sup­port­ing Role for his por­trayal of The Joker. Chris Nolan accepted the award on behalf of Heath Ledger:

Full Win­ners List

Best Sup­port­ing Actress: Kate Winslet, “The Reader“
Best Orig­i­nal Song: Bruce Spring­steen, “The Wrestler“
Best Sup­port­ing Actor in a Series, Minis­eries or Movie: Tom Wilkin­son, “John Adams“
Best Sup­port­ing Actress in a Series, Minis­eries or Movie: Laura Dern, “Recount“
Best Per­for­mance by an Actor in a Tele­vi­sion Series, Drama: Gabriel Byrne, “In Treat­ment“
Best Actress in a TV Series, Drama: Anna Paquin, “True Blood“
Out­stand­ing Ani­mated Fea­ture: “WALL-E“
Best Per­for­mance by an Actress in a Motion Pic­ture — Musi­cal or Com­edy: Sally Hawkins, “Happy-Go-Lucky“
Best Mini-Series or Motion Pic­ture Made for Tele­vi­sion: “John Adams“
Best Sup­port­ing Actor in a Motion Pic­ture: Heath Ledger, “The Dark Knight“
Best For­eign Lan­guage Film: “Waltz With Bashir“
Best Per­for­mance by an Actress in a Mini-Series or Motion Pic­ture Made for Tele­vi­sion: Laura Lin­ney, “John Adams“
Best Screen­play: Simon Beau­foy, “Slum­dog Mil­lion­aire“
Best Per­for­mance by an Actor in a Tele­vi­sion Series — Musi­cal or Com­edy: Alec Bald­win, “30 Rock“
Best Per­for­mance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Pic­ture Made for Tele­vi­sion: Paul Gia­matti, “John Adams“
Best Tele­vi­sion Series — Musi­cal or Com­edy: “30 Rock“
Best Orig­i­nal Score, A.R. Rah­man: “Slum­dog Mil­lion­aire“
Best Per­for­mance by an Actress in a Tele­vi­sion Series — Musi­cal or Com­edy: Tina Fey, “30 Rock“
Cecil B. DeMille Award: Steven Spiel­berg
Best Direc­tor — Motion Pic­ture: Danny Boyle “Slum­dog Mil­lion­aire“
Best Per­for­mance by an Actor in a Motion Pic­ture — Musi­cal or Com­edy: Colin Far­rell, “In Bruges“
Best Motion Pic­ture — Musi­cal or Com­edy: “Vicky Cristina Barcelona“
Best Per­for­mance by an Actress in a Motion Pic­ture –Drama: Kate Winslet, “Rev­o­lu­tion­ary Road“
Best Tele­vi­sion Series — Drama: “Mad Men“
Best Actor in a Motion Pic­ture — Drama: Mickey Rourke, “The Wrestler“
Best Motion Pic­ture — Drama: “Slum­dog Millionaire”

The Writ­ers Guild, Pro­duc­ers Guild and Direc­tors Guild have all nom­i­nated The Dark Knight in their respec­tive awards:

Director’s Guild — Best Picture:

David Fincher, “The Curi­ous Case of Ben­jamin But­ton”
Christo­pher Nolan, “The Dark Knight”
Ron Howard, “Frost/Nixon”
Gus Van Sant, “Milk”
Danny Boyle, “Slum­dog Millionaire”

Writ­ers Guild — Best Adapted Screenplay:

The Curi­ous Case of Ben­jamin But­ton, Screen­play by Eric Roth; Screen Story by Eric Roth and Robin Swicord; Based on the Short Story by F. Scott Fitzger­ald, Para­mount Pic­tures and Warner Bros. Pictures

The Dark Knight, Screen­play by Jonathan Nolan and Christo­pher Nolan; Story by Christo­pher Nolan & David S. Goyer; Based on Char­ac­ters Appear­ing in Comic Books Pub­lished by DC Comics; Bat­man Cre­ated by Bob Kane, Warner Bros. Pictures

Doubt, Screen­play by John Patrick Shan­ley, Based on his Stage Play, Mira­max Films

Frost/Nixon, Screen­play by Peter Mor­gan, Based on his Stage Play, Uni­ver­sal Pictures

Slum­dog Mil­lion­aire, Screen­play by Simon Beau­foy, Based on the Novel Q and A by Vikas Swarup, Fox Search­light Pictures

Producer’s Guild — Dar­ryl F. Zanuck Pro­ducer of the Year Award:

Slum­dog Mil­lion­aire
The Curi­ous Case of Ben­jamin But­ton
Milk
Frost/Nixon
The Dark Knight

In other news, MTV recently spoke to Dark Knight pro­ducer Chuck Roven about Chris Nolan’s Bat­man 3, but there’s noth­ing new to be heard on that for now — Nolan and writer Goyer are talk­ing, that’s the full extent of the article.