There were two possibilities for the 86th Academy Awards, joked host Ellen DeGeneres, either ‘12 Years a Slave wins the best picture Oscar … [or] you’re all racists.’ Luckily for the hall, things went the right way. Handwringing trumped artistic merit, 12 Years a Slave nabbing the top gong of best picture. The most cinematically thrilling movie, Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity, had to settle for the best director prize and several back-end awards.
As expected Cate Blanchett won best actress for her turn as a disintegrating society wife in Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine and Matthew McConaughey took best actor for his acclaimed depiction of Ron Woodroof in Dallas Buyers Club.
It was nice to see the short on the pianist Alice Herz-Sommer – who died last month at the age of 108 – The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life, picking up the best short documentary prize. Paolo Sorrentino’s satire on Berlusconi-era Italy La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty) won best foreign film – and Pier Silvio Berlusconi (Silvio’s son), whose production company Italian Medusa Film financed the movie, was there to soak up the irony.
There were two upsets. Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Act of Killing (subject: Indonesian mass murder) lost out to 20 Feet from Stardom (subject: backing singers). And American Hustle, a film so closely associated with its impressive 70s hairdos that everyone calls it ‘The Hair Film’, didn’t win best hair. (Insanely, it wasn’t even nominated.)
American Hustle, Philomena, Captain Phillips, Nebraska and Wolf of Wall Street – all films tipped for big prizes – went away empty handed.
By common consensus, the unofficial prize for best dress went to Lupita Nyong’o (who also won best supporting actress):
Photo: Ian West/PA Wire/Press Association Images
WINNERS AND LOSERS: THE FULL LIST
(Winners in bold)
Best Picture
12 Years a Slave – Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner,Steve McQueen, and Anthony Kataga
American Hustle – Charles Roven, Richard Suckle, Megan Ellison, and Jonathan Gordon
Captain Phillips – Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, and Michael De Luca
Dallas Buyers Club – Robbie Brenner and Rachel Winter
Gravity – Alfonso Cuarón and David Heyman
Her – Megan Ellison, Spike Jonze, and Vincent Landay
Nebraska – Albert Berger and Ron Yerxa
Philomena – Gabrielle Tana, Steve Coogan, and Tracey Seaward
The Wolf of Wall Street – Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio,Joey McFarland, and Emma Tillinger Koskoff
Best Director
Alfonso Cuarón – Gravity
David O. Russell – American Hustle
Alexander Payne – Nebraska
Steve McQueen – 12 Years a Slave
Martin Scorsese – The Wolf of Wall Street
Best Actor
Matthew McConaughey – Dallas Buyers Club as Ron Woodroof
Christian Bale – American Hustle as Irving Rosenfeld
Bruce Dern – Nebraska as Woody Grant
Leonardo DiCaprio – The Wolf of Wall Street as Jordan Belfort
Chiwetel Ejiofor – 12 Years a Slave as Solomon Northup
Best Actress
Cate Blanchett – Blue Jasmine as Jeanette “Jasmine” Francis
Amy Adams – American Hustle as Sydney Prosser
Sandra Bullock – Gravity as Dr. Ryan Stone
Judi Dench – Philomena as Philomena Lee
Meryl Streep – August: Osage County as Violet Weston
Best Supporting Actor
Jared Leto – Dallas Buyers Club as Rayon
Barkhad Abdi – Captain Phillips as Abduwali Muse
Bradley Cooper – American Hustle as Agent Richard “Richie” DiMaso
Michael Fassbender – 12 Years a Slave as Edwin Epps
Jonah Hill – The Wolf of Wall Street as Donnie Azoff
Best Supporting Actress
Lupita Nyong’o – 12 Years a Slave as Patsey
Sally Hawkins – Blue Jasmine as Ginger
Jennifer Lawrence – American Hustle as Rosalyn Rosenfeld
Julia Roberts – August: Osage County as Barbara Weston-Fordham
June Squibb – Nebraska as Kate Grant
Best Writing – Original Screenplay
Her – Spike Jonze
American Hustle – Eric Warren Singer and David O. Russell
Blue Jasmine – Woody Allen
Dallas Buyers Club – Craig Borten and Melisa Wallack
Nebraska – Bob Nelson
Best Writing – Adapted Screenplay
12 Years a Slave – John Ridley
Before Midnight – Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, and Ethan Hawke
Captain Phillips – Billy Ray
Philomena – Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope
The Wolf of Wall Street – Terence Winter
Best Animated Feature Film
Frozen – Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee, and Peter Del Vecho
The Croods – Kirk DeMicco, Chris Sanders, and Kristine Belson
Despicable Me 2 – Pierre Coffin, Chris Renaud, and Chris Meledandri
Ernest & Celestine – Benjamin Renner and Didier Brunner
The Wind Rises – Hayao Miyazaki and Toshio Suzuki
Best Foreign Language Film
The Great Beauty (Italy) in Italian – Paolo Sorrentino
The Broken Circle Breakdown (Belgium) in Dutch – Felix Van Groeningen
The Hunt (Denmark) in Danish – Thomas Vinterberg
The Missing Picture (Cambodia) in French – Rithy Panh
Omar (Palestine) in Arabic – Hany Abu-Assad
Best Documentary – Feature
20 Feet from Stardom – Morgan Neville, Gil Friesen, and Caitrin Rogers
The Act of Killing – Joshua Oppenheimer and Signe Byrge Sørensen
Cutie and the Boxer – Zachary Heinzerling and Lydia Dean Pilcher
Dirty Wars – Richard Rowley and Jeremy Scahill
The Square – Jehane Noujaim and Karim Amer
Best Documentary – Short Subject
The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life – Malcolm Clarkeand
Nicholas Reed
CaveDigger – Jeffrey Karoff
Facing Fear – Jason Cohen
Karama Has No Walls – Sara Ishaq
Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall – Edgar Barens
Best Live Action Short Film
Helium – Anders Walter and Kim Magnusson
Aquél no era yo (That Wasn’t Me) – Esteban Crespo
Avant que de tout perdre (Just Before Losing Everything) – Xavier Legrand and
Alexandre Gavras
Pitääkö mun kaikki hoitaa? (Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?) – Selma Vilhunen and Kirsikka Saari
The Voorman Problem – Mark Gill and Baldwin Li
Best Animated Short Film
Mr. Hublot – Laurent Witz and Alexandre Espigares
Feral – Daniel Sousa and Dan Golden
Get a Horse! – Lauren MacMullan and Dorothy McKim
Possessions – Shuhei Morita
Room on the Broom – Max Lang and Jan Lachauer
Best Original Score
Gravity – Steven Price
The Book Thief – John Williams
Her – William Butler and Owen Pallett
Philomena – Alexandre Desplat
Saving Mr. Banks – Thomas Newman
Best Original Song
“Let It Go” from Frozen – Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez
“Happy” from Despicable Me 2 – Pharrell Williams
“The Moon Song” from Her – Karen Orzolek and Spike Jonze”Ordinary Love” from Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom – U2
“Alone, Yet Not Alone” from Alone Yet Not Alone – Bruce Broughton and Dennis Spiegel (nomination revoked)
Best Sound Editing
Gravity – Glenn Freemantle
All Is Lost – Steve Boeddeker and Richard Hymns
Captain Phillips – Oliver Tarney
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – Brent Burge and Chris Ward
Lone Survivor – Wylie Stateman
Best Sound Mixing
Gravity – Skip Lievsay, Niv Adiri, Christopher Benstead, and Chris Munro
Captain Phillips – Chris Burdon, Mark Taylor, Mike Prestwood Smith, and Chris Munro
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – Christopher Boyes,Michael Hedges, Michael Semanick, and Tony Johnson
Inside Llewyn Davis – Skip Lievsay, Greg Orloff, and Peter F. Kurland
Lone Survivor – Andy Koyama, Beau Borders, and David Brownlow
Best Production Design
The Great Gatsby – Catherine Martin (Production Design); Beverley Dunn (Set Decoration)
American Hustle – Judy Becker (Production Design); Heather Loeffler (Set Decoration)
Gravity – Andy Nicholson (Production Design); Rosie Goodwinand Joanne Woollard (Set Decoration)
Her – K. K. Barrett (Production Design); Gene Serdena (Set Decoration)
12 Years a Slave – Adam Stockhausen (Production Design); Alice Baker (Set Decoration)
Best Cinematography
Gravity – Emmanuel Lubezki
The Grandmaster – Philippe Le Sourd
Inside Llewyn Davis – Bruno Delbonnel
Nebraska – Phedon Papamichael
Prisoners – Roger Deakins
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Dallas Buyers Club – Adruitha Lee and Robin Mathews
Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa – Stephen Prouty
The Lone Ranger – Joel Harlow and Gloria Pasqua-Casny
Best Costume Design
The Great Gatsby – Catherine Martin
American Hustle – Michael Wilkinson
The Grandmaster – William Chang Suk Ping
The Invisible Woman – Michael O’Connor
12 Years a Slave – Patricia Norris
Best Film Editing
Gravity – Alfonso Cuarón and Mark Sanger
American Hustle – Jay Cassidy, Crispin Struthers, and Alan Baumgarten
Captain Phillips – Christopher Rouse
Dallas Buyers Club – John Mac McMurphy and Martin Pensa
12 Years a Slave – Joe Walker
Best Visual Effects
Gravity – Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, Dave Shirk, and Neil Corbould
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton, and Eric Reynolds
Iron Man 3 – Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Erik Nash, and Dan Sudick
The Lone Ranger – Tim Alexander, Gary Brozenich, Edson Williams, and John Frazier
Star Trek Into Darkness – Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Ben Grossmann, and Burt Dalton
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