3 Mar - The 2014 Academy Awards was filled with many deserved wins, some expected and some an incredible surprise. The biggest winners included "12 Years a Slave", directed by Steve McQueen and "Gravity", directed by Alfonso Cuaron. Alfonso Cuaron's "Gravity" managed to be the biggest winner of the night, winning a total of seven awards including Achievements in Cinematography, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, best Original Score, Film Editing, Visual Effects and Cuaron winning himself the award for Best Director. But the most anticipated film award, Best Picture, was given to "12 Years a Slave" by Steve McQueen. The film also won Best Adapted Screenplay.
"Everyone deserves not just to survive but to live," director Steve McQueen said in his acceptance speech. Lupita Nyong'o, who played Patsey in the film, won herself the Oscar for best Supporting Actress, and gave audiences a heartfelt speech, including a very quotable, "No matter where you're from, your dreams are valid." Both Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto won themselves the awards for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor, respectively, for their roles in "Dallas Buyers Club". McConaughey started his speech by thanking himself - or at least the version of himself that is always ten years in the future and who he is trying to catch up. Jared Leto however spent most of his speech thanking his mom and his brother who was also present at the awards with him. Best Actress winner Cate Blanchett, who has won her second Oscar, this time for Best Actress, awkwardly thanked "Blue Jasmine" director Woody Allen in her speech, who had recently been under the media for allegations of rape and assault.
Amongst the other great categories, the song "Let It Go" from the Disney animated film "Frozen" won, making songwriter Robert Lopez one of the very few people to have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony, and who is known as an EGOT. Spike Jonze, who had also helped create the weird phenomenon "Jackass" on MTV, won Best Screenplay for writing his film "Her". Here is the full list of winners: BEST PICTURE "12 Years a Slave" 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 DIRECTOR Alfonso Cuaron, "Gravity" ALL OTHER CATEGORIES Best Animated Feature "Frozen" Best Foreign Language Film "The Great Beauty" (Italy) Best Documentary "20 Feet From Stardom" Best Original Screenplay "Her," written by Spike Jonze Best Adapted Screenplay "12 Years a Slave," screenplay by John Ridley Best Original Score "Gravity," Steven Price Best Original Song "Let It Go" from "Frozen," music and lyric by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez Best Editing "Gravity," Alfonso Cuarón and Mark Sanger Best Cinematography Emmanuel Lubezki, "Gravity" Best Production Design "The Great Gatsby," Catherine Martin (Production Design); Beverley Dunn (Set Decoration) Best Costume Design Catherine Martin, "The Great Gatsby" Best Makeup and Hairstyling Adruitha Lee and Robin Mathews, "Dallas Buyers Club" Best Sound Editing Glenn Freemantle, "Gravity" Best Sound Mixing Skip Lievsay, Niv Adiri, Christopher Benstead and Chris Munro, "Gravity" Best Visual Effects Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, Dave Shirk and Neil Corbould, "Gravity" Best Live-Action Short "Helium," Anders Walter and Kim Magnusson Best Animated Short "Mr. Hublot," Laurent Witz and Alexandre Espigares Best Documentary Short "The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life," Malcolm Clarke and Nicholas Reed