Winslet and Slumdog win at Brit-dominated Oscars

Slumdog Millionaire has swept the board at the Oscars, winning eight awards, including best film and best director for Danny Boyle.

In a triumphant night for the Brits, Kate Winslet was sixth time lucky as she picked up a best actress Oscar after five previous unsuccessful nominations.

Kate won over the Academy with her performance as an illiterate Second World War concentration camp guard, and as she stood on stage at Hollywood's Kodak Theatre clutching her Oscar, she said she had been rehearsing the moment for many years.

"I'd be lying if I (said I) hadn't made a version of this before I was eight years old and staring into the bathroom mirror and this would be a shampoo bottle, only it's not a shampoo bottle now," she said.

"I feel very fortunate to have come all the way from there to here."

Sean Penn took the Best Actor Oscar for his lead role in Milk.

Danny Boyle jumped up and down with delight as he took the best director award, then explained his energetic celebration: "My kids are too young to remember this, but I swore that if this miracle ever happened, I would receive it in the spirit of Tigger from Winnie the Pooh, so that's what that was about."

Slumdog's total of eight Oscars - for best film, director, song, musical score, adapted screenplay, cinematography, film editing and sound mixing - is the best by a British film since the World War Two romance The English Patient took nine in 1997.

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