Hollywood named the brutal, unshrinking historical drama 12 Years a Slave best picture at the 86th annual Academy Awards.
Steve McQueen’s slavery odyssey, based on Solomon Northup’s 1853 memoir, has been hailed as a landmark corrective to the movie industry’s virtual blindness to slavery, instead creating whiter tales like 1940 best-picture winner Gone With the Wind. 12 Years a Slave is the first best-picture winner directed by a black filmmaker.
“Everyone deserves not just to survive, but to live,” said McQueen, who dedicated the honor to those, past and present, who have endured slavery. “This is the most important legacy of Solomon Northup.”
Photo: AFP
The normally reserved McQueen promptly bounced up and down on stage, later matter-of-factly explaining his joy physically took over: “So, Van Halen. Jump.”
The 3D space marvel Gravity and the starry 1970s caper American Hustle came in as the leading nominee getters. David O. Russell’s American Hustle went home empty-handed, but Gravity triumphed as the night’s top award-winner. Cleaning up in technical categories like cinematography and visual effects, it earned seven Oscars, including best director for Alfonso Cuaron. The Mexican filmmaker is the category’s first Latino winner.
However, history belonged to 12 Years a Slave, a modestly budgeted drama produced by Brad Pitt’s production company, Plan B, that has made US$50 million worldwide — a far cry from the more than US$700 million Gravity has hauled in.
Ellen DeGeneres, in a nimble second stint as host that seemed designed as an antidote to the crude humor of Seth MacFarlane last year, summarized the academy’s options in her opening monologue: “Possibility No. 1: 12 Years a Slave wins best picture. Possibility No. 2: You’re all racists.”
DeGeneres presided over a smooth if safe ceremony, punctuated by politics, pizza and photo-bombing. Freely circulating in the crowd, she had pizza delivered, appealing to Harvey Weinstein to pitch in, and gathered stars to snap a selfie she hoped would be a record-setter on Twitter. (It was: Long before midnight, the photograph had been retweeted more than 2 million times and momentarily crashed Twitter.)
However, in celebrating a movie year roundly considered an exceptionally deep one, the Oscars fittingly spread the awards around. The starved stars of the Texas AIDS drama Dallas Buyers Club were feted: Matthew McConaughey for best actor and Jared Leto for best supporting actor.
Leto passed around his Oscar to members of the press backstage, urging them to “fondle” it.
The long-haired actor, who has devoted himself in recent years to his rock band 30 Seconds to Mars, gravely vowed: “I will revel tonight.”
Cate Blanchett took best actress for her fallen socialite in Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine, her second Oscar.
Accepting the award, she challenged Hollywood not to think of films starring women as “niche experiences.”
“The world is round, people,” she said to hearty applause.
Draped in Nairobi blue, Lupita Nyong’o — the Cinderella of the awards season — won best supporting actress for her indelible impression as the tortured slave Patsy. It is the feature film debut for the 31-year-old actress.
“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 Patsy for her guidance,” Nyong’o said.
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.”
John Ridley won best adapted screenplay for 12 Years a Slave, shifting praise to Northup: “Those are his words. That is his life.”
Spike Jonze took best original screenplay for his futuristic romance Her, the category Russell had the best chance of winning.
Best documentary went to the crowd-pleasing backup singer ode 20 Feet From Stardom. One of its stars, Darlene Love, accepted the award singing the gospel tune His Eye Is on the Sparrow: “I sing because I’m happy/ I sing because I’m free.”
Disney’s global hit Frozen won best animated film, marking — somewhat remarkably — the studio’s first win in the 14 years of the best animated feature category.
Italy’s The Great Beauty won the Oscar for best foreign language film. In accepting the award for his rumination on life and Rome’s decadence, director Paolo Sorrentino thanked his heroes, including Federico Fellini, Martin Scorsese and soccer star Diego Maradona.
Songwriter Robert Lopez gave the Philippines some Oscars joy as he completed a rare quadruple triumph.
The 39-year-old American scooped the Oscar for best original song for Let It Go from the Disney hit animated film Frozen.
The win, which Lopez shared with his wife, Kristin Anderson-Lopez, saw the songwriter join an elite band who have won the grand slam of entertainment industry awards — Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony — or “EGOT.”
Lopez, who is of Philippine descent, paid tribute to his ancestral homeland during a backstage press conference after the win.
“Filipino pride. I’m so excited. I’m just sending love to the Philippines,” Lopez said.
“I know they’ve had a tough year and I just send out my feelings to them,” he said, referring to Typhoon Haiyan, which battered the country in November last year, leaving thousands dead.
Additional reporting by AFP
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