She may have waited 15 years, but as Kate Winslet accepted her first Oscar for best actress, she didn’t forget to mention the person who helped launch her career Wellington director Peter Jackson. Winslet, who worked with Jackson in her first feature Heavenly Creatures, filmed in New Zealand, won her first ever Oscar yesterday for her role in The Reader. Down under featured throughout the ceremony, highlighted again when Australian presenter Hugh Jackman amused the crowd as he quipped about New Zealand. “Everything is being downsized because of the recession,” Jackman said. “Next year I’ll be starring in a movie called New Zealand…” Heavenly creature Kate Winslet wins