Blaenau boy – and South Wales Guardian village correspondent – Arwel Evans admits he is struggling to put his elation into words after Slumdog Millionaire, which he worked on as art director, scooped eight Oscars at Sunday night’s lavish awards ceremony in the United States, writes Owen Lock.

The movie cleaned up at the LA bash, winning, among others, the award for Best Film.

And while most people in Arwel’s position would have been out celebrating all night, the dedicated father-of-two was tucked up in bed before an early morning start on his current movie, Mr Nice, which is being shot on location in Spain.

"I’d have loved to have stayed up but we were up at 5am on Monday so there was no way I could have," said Arwel, who despite his hectic travel schedule still finds time to contribute to the Guardian as Blaenau village correspondent.

"Having said that, there were plenty of texts and emails coming through all night, so I didn’t really get much sleep and I knew what was happening," he chuckled.

Slumdog Millionaire was the second Oscar-winning movie the former Ysgol Tre-gib pupil has worked on but he says the first success, with Constant Gardener, pales by comparison.

"The Constant Gardener’s success was overshadowed because it was the year of Brokeback Mountain," he said.

"But this year it’s all about Slumdog and it’s great to see your mates doing so well and to see something you’ve worked on being so successful.

"The phone’s been going all day with friends back home sending their congratulations, which has been great."