Slumdog Millionaire took the best-picture Academy Award and seven other Oscars on Sunday, including director for Danny Boyle, whose ghetto-to-glory story paralleled the film's unlikely rise to Hollywood's summit.

The other top winners included Kate Winslet (best actress), Sean Penn (actor), Heath Ledger (a posthumous winner for supporting actor) and Penelope Cruz (supporting actress).

A story of hope amid squalor in Mumbai, India, Slumdog Millionaire earned 10 nominations; its eight wins including adapted screenplay, cinematography, editing and both music Oscars (score and song).

"Just to say to Mumbai, all of you who helped us make the film and all of those of you who didn't, thank you very much. You dwarf even this guy," Boyle said, holding up his directing Oscar.

The filmmakers accepted the best-picture trophy surrounded by both the adult professional actors who appeared among the cast of relative unknowns and some of the children Boyle cast from the slums of Mumbai.

The film follows the travails and triumphs of Jamal, an orphan who artfully dodges a criminal gang that mutilates children to make them more pitiable beggars. Jamal witnesses his mother's violent death, endures police torture and struggles with betrayal by his brother, while single-mindedly hoping to reunite with the lost love of his childhood.

After he took the stage to accept his prize for playing slain gay-rights pioneer Harvey Milk in Milk, Penn gleefully told the crowd: "You commie, homo-loving sons of guns." He followed with condemnation of anti-gay protesters who demonstrated near the Oscar site.

"For those who saw the signs of hatred as our cars drove in tonight, I think it's a good time for those who voted for the ban against gay marriage to sit and reflect on their great shame and their shame in their grandchildren's eyes if they continue that support. We've got to have equal rights for everyone."

For his demented reinvention of Batman villain the Joker in The Dark Knight, Ledger became only the second actor ever to win posthumously (Peter Finch was the first, winning best actor for 1976's Network).

The triumph came exactly 13 months after Ledger's death from an accidental overdose of prescription drugs. The Oscar was accepted by Ledger's parents and sister on behalf of the actor's 3-year-old daughter, Matilda. "I have to say this is ever so humbling, just being amongst such wonderful people in such a wonderful industry," said his father, Kim Ledger.

Cruz triumphed as a woman in a steamy three-way affair with her ex-husband and an American woman in Woody Allen's romance Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

"Thank you, Woody, for trusting me with this beautiful character," Cruz said. "Thank you for having written all these years some of the greatest characters for women."

"I'd be lying if I haven't made a version of this speech before," said Winslet as she accepted her best-actress prize for The Reader. "I think I was probably 8 years old and staring into the bathroom mirror, and this would be a shampoo bottle. But it's not a shampoo bottle now."

The epic love story The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which led with 13 nominations, had three wins, for visual effects, art direction and makeup. The Dark Knight had a second win, for sound editing.

The winners were . . .

Complete list of winners at the 81st annual Academy Awards:

* Picture: Slumdog Millionaire

* Actor: Sean Penn, Milk

* Actress: Kate Winslet, The Reader

* Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight

* Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona

* Director: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire

* Foreign Film: Departures, Japan

* Adapted Screenplay: Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog Millionaire

* Original Screenplay: Dustin Lance Black, Milk

* Animated Feature Film: WALL-E

* Art Direction: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

* Cinematography: Slumdog Millionaire

* Sound Mixing: Slumdog Millionaire

* Sound Editing: The Dark Knight

* Original Score: Slumdog Millionaire, A.R. Rahman

* Original Song: "Jai Ho" from Slumdog Millionaire, A.R. Rahman and Gulzar

* Costume: The Duchess

* Documentary Feature: Man on Wire

* Documentary (short subject): Smile Pinki

* Film Editing: Slumdog Millionaire

* Makeup: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

* Animated Short Film: La Maison en Petits Cubes

* Live Action Short Film: Spielzeugland (Toyland)

* Visual Effects: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

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