From CBS NEWS
“12 Years a Slave” won the Oscar for best picture at Sunday’s Academy Awards, while the 3D space spectacle “Gravity” triumphed as the night’s top award-winner.
Director Steve McQueen, left, celebrates with the cast and crew of “12 Years a Slave” as they accept the award for best picture during the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre on Sunday, March 2, 2014, in Los Angeles. (Photo by John Shearer/Invision/AP)
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.”
McQueen dedicated the honor to those who suffered slavery and “the 21 million who still endure slavery today.”
“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.
“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.”
“As random and subjective as this award is, it means a great deal in a year of extraordinary performances by women,” Blanchett said before praising fellow nominees Amy Adams, Sandra Bullock, Meryl Streep and Judi Dench.
McConaughey finished his acceptance speech by saying, “To any of us, whatever those things are, whatever we look up to, whatever it is we look forward to and whoever it is we’re chasing — to that I say, alright, alright, alright. And then I say, just keep livin’.”
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.
This year’s Oscars hung on a nail-biter of a finish, with the best picture race believed to be between the historical drama “12 Years a Slave,” the 3D space spectacle “Gravity” and the con-artist comedy “American Hustle,” which got completely shut out of Sunday’s awards. Host Ellen DeGeneres alluded to the options in her opening monologue.
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