FORGET BRAD AND ANGE. “Slumdog Millionaire” lovers Frieda Pinto and Dev Patel were the Golden Couple at this year’s Oscars, thanks to the refracted glory of the night’s big, big winner.

Danny Boyle’s little indie movie that was supposed to go direct-to-DVD snagged a total of eight awards for Best Picture, Director, Cinematography, Adapted Screenplay, Sound Mixing, Film Editing, Original Score, and Original Song.

As everyone in the world knows by now, “Slumdog” is the rags-to-riches fairytale of a street kid from the Mumbai slums who goes all the way on the Indian version of “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.”

The movie’s many wins supplied a number of memorable acceptance speeches. Sound designer Resul Pookutty, for example, stopped hyperventilating long enough to say, “I come from a country and civilization that gave the world the word that precedes silence and is followed by more silence. That word is ‘Om.’” Pretty deep as far as acceptance speeches go.

It was a good night for Asia.

Best Foreign Language Film went to Japan’s “Departures,” about an out-of-work cellist who applies for new work “assisting departures” thinking it’s travel-related, but ends up in a mortuary assisting the departed. Director Yojiro Takita announced to the audience, “We’ll be back.” And we’re sure he will be.

Animator Kunio Kato won for his animated short film “Le Maison en Petits Cubes,” which uses hand drawings and 2D computer graphics to tell the story of a grandfather’s life through his recollections as he tries to stop the flooding of his house. Kato ended his acceptance speech with the oddly appropriate, “Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto.”

The Best Documentary Short category was a tough field that included three Asia-related projects. The winner, “Smile Pinki,” takes as its subject a girl in rural India whose cleft lip made her a social outcast but who gets a new chance at life. We can only hope the same for the real-life slum kids who stole the limelight at the end of the night, when “Slumdog” was named top dog.

•