Up to 11

I managed to confuse myself for hours on #11 trying to be elegant. But I really like this solution:

grid = [[0]*23]*3 + [[int(x) for x in line.split()]+[0,0,0] for line in
'''08 02 22 97 38 15 00 40 00 75 04 05 07 78 52 12 50 77 91 08
49 49 99 40 17 81 18 57 60 87 17 40 98 43 69 48 04 56 62 00
81 49 31 73 55 79 14 29 93 71 40 67 53 88 30 03 49 13 36 65
52 70 95 23 04 60 11 42 69 24 68 56 01 32 56 71 37 02 36 91
22 31 16 71 51 67 63 89 41 92 36 54 22 40 40 28 66 33 13 80
24 47 32 60 99 03 45 02 44 75 33 53 78 36 84 20 35 17 12 50
32 98 81 28 64 23 67 10 26 38 40 67 59 54 70 66 18 38 64 70
67 26 20 68 02 62 12 20 95 63 94 39 63 08 40 91 66 49 94 21
24 55 58 05 66 73 99 26 97 17 78 78 96 83 14 88 34 89 63 72
21 36 23 09 75 00 76 44 20 45 35 14 00 61 33 97 34 31 33 95
78 17 53 28 22 75 31 67 15 94 03 80 04 62 16 14 09 53 56 92
16 39 05 42 96 35 31 47 55 58 88 24 00 17 54 24 36 29 85 57
86 56 00 48 35 71 89 07 05 44 44 37 44 60 21 58 51 54 17 58
19 80 81 68 05 94 47 69 28 73 92 13 86 52 17 77 04 89 55 40
04 52 08 83 97 35 99 16 07 97 57 32 16 26 26 79 33 27 98 66
88 36 68 87 57 62 20 72 03 46 33 67 46 55 12 32 63 93 53 69
04 42 16 73 38 25 39 11 24 94 72 18 08 46 29 32 40 62 76 36
20 69 36 41 72 30 23 88 34 62 99 69 82 67 59 85 74 04 36 16
20 73 35 29 78 31 90 01 74 31 49 71 48 86 81 16 23 57 05 54
01 70 54 71 83 51 54 69 16 92 33 48 61 43 52 01 89 19 67 48'''.split('\n')
] + [[0]*23]*3

import operator

print max([reduce(operator.mul, [grid[y+n*d[0]][x+n*d[1]] for n in (0,1,2,3)])
for x in xrange(0,20) for y in xrange(3,23)
for d in ((0,1),(1,0),(1,1),(-1,1))]) 

The halo of zeros is very clever and completely works around what made mine confusing, and despite everything, inelegant:

linelen = len(array[0])
for line in array:
    assert len(line) == linelen

numlines = len(array)
offset = 4

directions = {
              "row":(0,linelen-offset+1,numlines,(0,1)),
              "column":(0,linelen,numlines-offset+1,(1,0)),
              "slash":(offset-1,linelen-offset+1,numlines-offset+1,(-1,1)),
              "backslash":(0,linelen-offset+1,numlines-offset+1,(1,1))
             }

maxprod = None
valmax = 0

for direction in directions.keys():
    x0, xlen, yrg, delta = directions[direction]
    vec0 = [(x0 + i * delta[0] ,i * delta[1]) for i in range(offset)]
    for y in range(yrg):
        vec1 = [(item[0]+y,item[1]) for item in vec0]
        for x in range(xlen):
            vec = [(item[0],item[1]+x) for item in vec1]
            vals = [array[item[0]][item[1]] for item in vec]
            prod = reduce(mul,vals,1)
            if prod > maxprod:
                valmax = vals
                maxprod = prod

print valmax, maxprod