86th Academy Awards | The Oscars 2014

In a triumph long deferred, “12 Years a Slave” won the best picture Oscar at the 86th Academy Awards on Sunday night, the first time Hollywood conferred its top honor to the work of a black director.
“12 Years a Slave” won only three awards, including best supporting actress and best adapted screenplay, while the film “Gravity” won seven, the most of any film.
Diversity was a leading motif for ceremony that was hosted by Ellen DeGeneres, a happy-go-lucky lesbian who spent most of the evening in a tuxedo, and which also honored Jared Leto as best supporting actor for his role as a transgender AIDS patient in “Dallas Buyers Club.”
The best actress award went to Cate Blanchett for “Blue Jasmine,” despite a late-season challenge by Dylan Farrow, who publicly wrote that its director Woody Allen and his films should be shunned because he had, by her account, sexually molested her as a child. Mr. Allen, her adoptive father, has strongly challenged the charge.
Jennifer Lawrence followed minutes later to present the best actor award to Matthew McConaughey for “Dallas Buyers Club.” “Why are you laughing?” Ms. Lawrence challenged the audience, which has come to expect a trip, fall or charming faux pas every time she takes the stage.
John Ridley, who won the best adapted screenplay Oscar for “12 Years a Slave,” invoked the suffering individual at the heart of his story. “All the praise goes to Solomon Northup,” said Mr. Ridley. “These are his words, this is his life.”
Spike Jonze won the original script Oscar for “Her,” a Warner Bros. film that had a powerful following, particularly among young viewers, who responded to its quirky story of one man’s love affair with his digital operating system.
 “Captain Phillips” came up empty-handed, a disappointment for both Sony Pictures, which distributed the film, and Tom Hanks, who had once seemed a likely best actor candidate for his performance as a real-life captain hijacked by pirates. Mr. Hanks, in the end, hadn’t even been nominated, and the film slipped into the peculiar twilight reserved for movies, like “True Grit,” that shine brightly, then mysteriously fade on Oscar night.
The best documentary feature was “20 Feet From Stardom,” a film about backup singers decidedly more fun than the issues-heavy fare that often dominates the category. And it brought a welcome win to the Weinstein Company, which distributed the film through its Radius-TWC division, and which saw several of its other contenders this year — “Philomena,” “August: Osage County,” “Lee Daniels’ The Butler” — fall short of the biggest awards.