The Oscars 2014 winners – 12 Years a Slave crowned Best Picture

Posted on 3 March 2014
By Craig Kell
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Awards season drew to a close last night with the mighty talent of Hollywood coming together for the 86th Annual Academy Awards.

As predicted, Steve McQueen’s brutal slavery drama 12 Years a Slave clinched the all-important Best Picture accolade.

British director McQueen dedicated the win to the many people who had endured slavery for centuries while actor/producer Brad Pitt was amongst those to receive a golden statue for his production skills.

The film also won Best Adapted Screenplay for John Ridley while Kenyan newcomer Lupita Nyong’o overcame stern pressure from Jennifer Lawrence to win Best Supporting Actress for her role as tragic cotton picker Patsey.

A large majority of the awards were won by Alfonso Cuaron’s spectacular sci-fi blockbuster Gravity as it cruised to seven gongs including a Best Director win for Cuaron.

It also managed to win in the categories for Cinematography, Editing, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Visual Effects and Original Score (Steven Price).

Real-life drama Dallas Buyers Club also fared well with three wins including Best Makeup as well as Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor for stars Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto.

Cate Blanchett eased her way to a second Oscar win for her role as erratic socialite Jasmine in Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine.

There were also two Oscar wins each for period drama The Great Gatsby (Production Design, Costume Design) and Frozen (Animated Film, Original Song – “Let It Go”) while Spike Jonze secured Best Original Screenplay for his writing of Her.

But it was a bad night for other Best Picture contenders with leading nominee American Hustle having the rare misfortune of being shut out completely.

Sea-faring thriller Captain Phillips (with seven nominations), real-life caper The Wolf of Wall Street and British dramedy Philomena also missed out on recognition.

US chat show host Ellen DeGeneres provided many laughs throughout the evening with one of the main highlights being an epic celebrity selfie that broke Twitter records as the most re-tweeted photo ever.

The full list of winners are below:

BEST PICTURE

12 Years a Slave

BEST DIRECTOR

Alfonso Cuaron – Gravity

BEST ACTOR

Matthew McConaughey – Dallas Buyers Club

BEST ACTRESS

Cate Blanchett – Blue Jasmine

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Jared Leto – Dallas Buyers Club

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Lupita Nyong’o – 12 Years a Slave

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Spike Jonze – Her

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

John Ridley – 12 Years a Slave

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

The Great Gatsby

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Gravity

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

The Great Gatsby

BEST MAKEUP & HAIR

Dallas Buyers Club

BEST EDITING

Gravity

BEST SOUND MIXING

Gravity

BEST SOUND EDITING

Gravity

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

Gravity

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

Steven Price – Gravity

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

“Let It Go” – Frozen

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE

The Great Beauty

BEST DOCUMENTARY

20 Feet from Stardom

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHOT

The Lady in Number 66: Music Saved My Life

BEST ANIMATED SHORT

Mr Hublot

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT

Helium

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