It was a Slumdog night at the Academy Awards, as the film about a love-struck boy from Mumbai walked off with eight awards, including Best Picture and director.

Under the affable guidance of host Hugh Jackman, the 81st Oscars ran smoothly, with a pre-disposition to spread the love around. That explains Sean Penn's win for Milk, Kate Winslet's best actress nod for The Reader and A.R. Rahman's two Oscars for music for Slumdog Millionaire. (Even the little-seen The Duchess got in on the act with a costuming prize.)

There were surprises, of course, starting with Penn's best actor win. The betting money was on Mickey Rourke for his comeback role in The Wrestler.

And Penelope Cruz snagged best supporting actress for Vicky Cristina Barcelona, rightly perhaps, because without her that movie would have been one big dud.

Two low points for this year's show:

* Producers decided to present acting awards en masse. Five previous winners in the four categories (supporting actor and actress, best actor and actress) addressed each current nominee. Sure it added a personal touch, but it also added a good 30 minutes.

* When Steven Spielberg presented the best picture Oscar, he introduced a montage of nominated movies that was interspersed with older classics (Milk with Braveheart, for example) that made no sense.

The best moments:

* Dustin Lance Black's moving acceptance speech for the screenplay for Milk. He talked about the inspiration Harvey Milk provided to him to live his life as an openly gay man.

* Queen Latifah's heartfelt rendition of I'll be Seeing You for a photo montage of industry veterans who died in the past year, from Isaac Hayes to Paul Newman.

* Comedy routines. Two in particular. First, Ben Stiller presented the cinematography award wearing a long beard, a not-so-subtle riff on Joaquin Phoenix's recent decision to quit acting and become a rapper. If you saw Phoenix recently on David Letterman - bushy beard, rambling speech - you instantly got the joke when Stiller said he wanted to "quit being a comedian and become a cinematographer."

There was also a hilarious bit in which James Franco and Seth Rogan reprised their stoner characters from Pineapple Express. They laughed hysterically as they watched serious moments from Doubt and The Reader, and then Franco became wistful watching scenes of his on-screen kiss with Sean Penn in Milk.

We want our Oscar shows to be glamorous and expedient. Sunday's was glamorous enough - would that we all looked as good as Hugh Jackman in a tuxedo and could dance as well with a top hat and cane - and it avoided setting a record for length.

And there were no outrageous voting faux pas - could you imagine the riot if Heath Ledger hadn't won for The Dark Knight? Australia would be declaring war on the U.S. right about now.

There was also a welcome improvement: Who can fault the producers for condensing the best song nominees into a four-minute production number, rather than scattering them throughout the show?

Perhaps the biggest surprise was that The Curious Case of Benjamin Button couldn't muster more than a handful of technical awards (visual effects, makeup).

As for my own record, I successfully predicted three out of seven categories. With those odds, I won't be going to Las Vegas anytime soon.

Read Mike Pearson's complete blog on the show on the Entertainment page at RockyMountainNews.com.