12 years a slave wins for best picture while Gravity wins seven for technical awards in achievement in film.
Steve McQueen’s slavery odyssey, based on Solomon Northup’s 1853 memoir, has been hailed as a landmark corrective to the movie industry’s long omission of slavery stories and years of whiter tales like 1940 best-picture winner “Gone With the Wind.”
Steve McQueen accepted the award for best picture, even though he did not get Best Director. His producer partner and actor was Brad Pitt was involved and one of the producer team.
“Everyone deserves not just to survive, but to live,” said McQueen, who promptly bounced into the arms of his cast. “This is the most important legacy of Solomon Northup.”
“Gravity” cleaned up in technical categories, earning seven Oscars including best director for Alfonso Cuaron. The Mexican filmmaker is the category’s first Latino winner.
Good, we need diversity in the film industry. We have great directors out there willing to produce some great entertaining movies for us to watch and make us think. We do have a lot of junk in space and the race to clean space takes time and money. So that’s where our money is going. Cleaning up space, that’s a good thing.
“It was a transformative experience,” said Cuaron, who spent some five years making the film and developing its visual effects. “For a lot of people, that transformation was wisdom. For me, it was the color of my hair.”
The awards for best actor and actress went to Matthew McConaughey, for his role as a desperate and determined AIDS patient in “Dallas Buyers Club,” and Cate Blanchett for playing a fragile socialite experiencing a meltdown in Woody Allen’s “Blue Jasmine.”
Lupita Nyong’o, the breakout star of “12 Years a Slave,” accepted the award for best supporting actress. In her feature film debut, the 31-year-old actress made an indelible impression as the tortured slave Patsey.
“It doesn’t escape me for one moment that so much joy in my life is thanks to so much pain in someone else’s, and so I want to salute the spirit of Patsey for her guidance,” said Nyong’o. She also thanked director Steve McQueen: “I’m certain that the dead are standing about you and they are watching and they are grateful, and so am I.”
She added, “When I look down at this golden statue may it remind me and every little child that no matter where you’re from, your dreams are valid.”
Jared Leto won best supporting actor for his acclaimed performance as a transgender woman with AIDS in “Dallas Buyers Club.” He dedicated the award to his mother, his date for the evening. “Thank you for teaching me to dream,” he said.
Other winners included “The Great Gatsby” for best costume design and production design, and best makeup and hairstyling for the low-budget “Dallas Buyers Club.” “The Great Beauty,” an Italian film hailed as an ode to Federico Fellini’s 1960 film “La Dolce Vita,” won best foreign language film.
Ellen DeGeneres was an excellent host tonight, she kept it moving. I hope she host it again or have Jay Leno to host it, he needs a job.
The talk-show host quickly circulated in the audience, delivering pizza and appealing to Harvey Weinstein to pitch in on the bill. She also crowded in as many stars as she could in hopes of generating the most-tweeted photo ever. Meryl Streep giddily exclaimed: “I’ve never tweeted before!” The resulting image had been retweeted more than 1.5 million times — and counting. I couldn’t see it. Twitter crashed.
Jennifer Lawrence stumbled over a cone while walking out of her limousine at the 86th Academy Awards, marking the second year the “Hunger Games” star has had a slip-up at the Oscars. She needs a guy with her to hold her up, where was her brother at?
During her opening monologue, this year’s host Ellen DeGeneres made light of Lawrence’s stumbles.
“If you win tonight, I think we should bring you the Oscar,” DeGeneres joked.
Lawrence was up for an Academy Award at this year’s ceremony in the best supporting actress category, for her portrayal of a New Jersey housewife in “American Hustle,” also directed by Russell and co-starring Cooper. She lost out to “12 Years A Slave” star Lupita Nyong’o.
In Memoriam, again still the Oscars has left some great actors that passed away between 2013 – 2014, and they were: Marcia Wallace, Lisa Robin Kelly, Lee Thompson Young, Phil Everly, Phil Ramone, Lou Reed, Pete Seeger, Dennis Farina, Gary David Goldberg, Alicia Rhett, Alain Resnais, Jim Jacks, Clive Burr, Cory Monteith, James Avery and Wizard of Oz’s Ruth Robinson Duccini (which is ironic given the film’s tribute earlier on in the evening). Maybe they have time restrains and put only recognizable people in the acting and entertainment community.
Since, the Oscar was broadcast at eight thirty, eastern time, they could have started early like eight. And the Thank you speech could be cut in half.
