If the Academy Awards have taught us anything over the years it’s that they don’t like to be typecast. They proved that once again with the 2008 winner, as unlikely a Best Picture winner as they have ever given us – a Bollywood-style film called Slumdog Millionaire. Forget the phrase “art imitating life imitating art”, here was “Hollywood imitating Bollywood imitating Hollywood”.

Danny Boyle’s film was a Bollywood film for western audiences who had never seen a Bollywood film. It was done in the style that the Indian film industry had long fostered, deftly mixing high drama, low comedy and music including often exuberant singing and dancing.

The film, which tells the life story of a poor boy from Mumbai who is suspected of cheating when he wins the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, resonated with audiences all over the world, winning more than 100 world-wide awards including eight Oscars.

In addition to wins for Best Picture and director, the film received Oscars for Best Adapted Screenplay; Cinematography; Editing; Sound Mixing; Score and Song, “Jai Ho”. It had also been nominated for Best Sound Editing and a second song, “O Saya”.

Besting Slumdog’s ten nods, David Fincher’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button received an impressive thirteen nominations including Best Picture; Director; Actor (Brad Pitt); Supporting Actress (Taraji P. Henson); Adapted Screenplay; Cinematography; Editing; Costume Design; Score; Sound Mixing; Art Direction; Makeup and Visual Effects. The one-of-a-kind tale of a man who is “born old” and lives his life backwards won in the latter three categories.

Nominated for five Oscars, Stephen Daldry’s The Reader earned Kate Winslet her first Oscar on her sixth nomination as a life affirming German streetcar conductor with a dark past. Winslet was in the unusual position of being campaigned for Supporting Actress, but being nominated in lead and winning that category. Although her illiterate character was secondary to the film’s first person narrator, that role was shared by two actors (David Kross, Ralph Fiennes) whereas Winslet’s role was larger by virtue of her not having to share the job with another actress.

The Reader had also been nominated for Best Picture; Director; Adapted Screenplay and Cinematography. Two of the film’s producers, former Oscar winning directors Sydney Pollack and Anthony Mighella, were nominated posthumously.

Two quite different biographical films rounded out the Best Picture nominees.

Eight nominations and two wins went to Gus Van Zant’s Milk, the story of gay activist and California’s first elected openly gay politician Harvey Milk who was murdered along with San Francisco’s Mayor Moscone by former councilman Dan White in 1978. Sean Penn won his second Oscar for his indelible portrayal of Milk from his early days in New York City to his political ascendancy in San Francisco. The film also won for Best Original Screenplay. It had also been nominated for Best Director; Supporting Actor (Josh Brolin as Dan White); Editing; Costume Design and Score.

Ron Howard’s Frost/Nixon, based on the Broadway play, was about the historic television interview of Richard Nixon conducted by Britian’s David Frost. It was nomianated for five Oscars including Best Director; Adapted Screenplay; editing and Actor, Frank Langella as Nixon. Michael Sheen played Frost.

Other films Oscar liked this year included WALL-E; The Dark Knight; Doubt; The Wrestler; The Visitor; Frozen River; Changeling; Rachel Getting Married and Vicky Christina Barcelona;.

The awe-inspiring WALL-E achieved popularity well beyond the usual animated feature audience. Fans of science fiction, multi-generational stories and even musical comedies of the past could find something to like in Pixar’s ambitious tale of a cast-off robot finding a new life in a future world. The film was nominated for Best Original Screenplay; Score; Song (“Down to Earth”); Sound Editing and Sound Mixing and handily won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature.

Heath Ledger’s sudden death at 28 early in the year put great expectations on his role as the villain in Christopher Nolan’s Batman movie, The Dark Knight. Expectations paid off as his intense performance led to a number of year-end prizes culminating in a posthumous Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. The film also won for Best Sound Editing and was nominated for six other Oscars for Best Cinematography; Editing; Art Direction; Makeup; Sound Mixing and Visual Effects.

Scoring a strong four acting nominations and an Adapted Screenplay nod, John Patrick Shanley’s adaptation of his play, Doubt earned Meryl Streep her fifteenth nomination as a no-nonsense nun and Catholic School principal in the 1960s who locks horns with a popular priest over the priest’s possible molestation of a twelve year-old boy. Philip Hoffman as the priest, Amy Adams as an impressionable young nun and Viola Davis as the boy’s mother were also nominated.

Veteran actor Mickey Rourke received his first Oscar nomination and Marisa Tomei her third for their strong portrayals of a faded pro wrestler and the middle-aged poll dancer he falls for in Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler.

Richard Jenkins and Melissa Leo, two performers previously known for their supporting work in films, had career zooms this year resulting in Best Actor and Actress nominations for both.

Jenkins gave a heartfelt performance as a college professor who forms a bond with the squatters living in his New York City apartment in Thomas McCarthy’s The Visitor while Leo gave a fierce performance as a desperate mother on the wrong side of the law in Courtney Hunt’s Frozen River. Her film was also nominated for Best Original Screenplay.

Based on the real life Chicken Coop Murders of the 1920s, Clint Eastwood’s Changeling provided Angelina Jolie with one of her best acting opportunities. She proved equal to the task, earning one of the film’s three Oscar nominations as a Best Actress candidate. The film was also nominated for Best Cinematography and Art Direction.

One of the most popular young actresses of the past few years, Anne Hathaway received her first Oscar nomination for playing against type as a recovering drug addict attending her perfect sister’s wedding in Jonathan Demme’s Rachel Getting Married.

Previous Best Actress nominee Penelope Cruz won the Best Supporting Actress as Javier Bardem’s volatile wife in Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

All films discussed have been released on DVD in the U.S.

This week’s new DVD releases include Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 and the Blu-ray debuts of Blue Velvet; The Collector and Fanny & Alexander.