Oscar 2009 was a big success and the awards went to the best. Slumdog
Millionaire is a great movie: it has pathos, it has freshness, it
teems with truth and authentic life. It is an amazing portrait of
today's India, a poor country becoming one of the top players in the
global economy. It is the Rebirth of a Nation: I am not afraid to
remind the names of Griffith and Eisenstein in the context of this
movie. Well, the difference here is that the rebirth of the nation is
done through individuals acting on their own: millions of individuals
struggling with extreme poverty, with corruption, with criminality,
with a police that is brutal while stupid, finding support only in
themselves, in their ambition and stamina, in their power to believe
in ideals. I said Griffith and Eisenstein; I am thinking also at two
great Brazilian directors, Salles and especially Meirelles (no wonder,
as Brazil is another poor country becoming a top player in the global
economy).

Kate Winslet won the award for the best leading actress: she was
phenomenal in The Reader: to show so convincingly all the
contradictory faces of the character of Hanna Schmitz, while remaining
always the same persona!

Sean Penn won the award for the best leading actor; I think I should
talk more about Milk, a very courageous movie, fighting with our
prejudices and making a great point for a society that recognizes the
right of each human being to live in dignity.