'12 Years A Slave,' Gravity' top winners at 86th Oscars

Steve McQueen's slavery drama "12 Years A Slave" that unflinchingly portrays America's dark past was crowned the best picture while Alfonso Cuaron's 3D space thriller walked away with the maximum seven trophies at the 86th Academy awards here today.
While 3D film "Gravity" walked away with most of the golden statuettes out of its 10 nominations thanks to its technical brilliance, the Academy's over six thousand voters bestowed the top award on "12 Years A Slave" out of the nine best picture nominees.
Best actor and actress Oscars went to Matthew McConaughey and Cate Blanchett for their roles "Dallas Buyers Club" and "Blue Jasmine" respectively.

The acclaimed film, based on the memoirs of Solomon Northup, a freeman forced into slavery, touches upon a topic that has been missing in Hollywood cinema for a long time.
Lupita Nyong'o and John Ridley brought the other two trophies for "12 Years A Slave" in the best supporting actress and best adapted screenplay categories.
In her emotionally-charged speech, Lupita thanked McQueen for his honest portrayal of a dark issue, saying: "It does not escape me for one moment that so much joy in my life is thanks to so much pain in someone else's. I want to salute the spirit of Patsey, for her guidance and for Solomon... Thank you for telling her story and your own."

Both producer-director McQueen and co-producer Brad Pitt also paid tribute to the heroic story of Northup.

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. This is the most important legacy of Solomon Northup," McQueen said as he accepted the Oscar from Will Smith.
"It has been an absolute privilege to work on Solomon Northup's story," Pitt added.
Cuaron's film had a clean sweep in technical categories by winning film editing, sound editing, sound mixing, visual effects, cinematography and original score besides winning the best director award for the Mexican helmer. He also shared the editing award with Mark Sanger.