Historical drama 12 Years a Slave has won best picture at the 86th Academy Awards in Los Angeles, while space drama Gravity won the lion's share of awards.
12 Years a Slave director Steve McQueen. Photo: AFP
12 Years a Slave made history as the first movie from a black director to win the film industry's highest honour. Accepting the award on Sunday, Steve McQueen paid tribute to all those who have endured slavery.
"I dedicate this award to all the people who have endured slavery and the 21 million people who still suffer slavery today. Everyone deserves not just to survive, but to live."
Based on a true story, the film follows the life of Solomon Northup, a free black man in New York kidnapped and sold into slavery in Louisiana.
Producer Brad Pitt praised McQueen - an artist turned director whose previous films include Hunger and Shame - for "bringing them altogether" to tell Northup's story.
Gravity's Alfonso Cuaron became the first Latino to win the best director award, adding to the film's six Oscars for technical achievement, the BBC reports.
Cuaron praised the "transformative" power of film and singled out the film's star Sandra Bullock as "the soul, the heart of Gravity".
The film - which took five years to complete, and owes much to the technical prowess of British visual effects specialists - also won Oscars for film editing, sound mixing, sound editing, cinematography, visual effects and score. It shut out New Zealand director Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug from awards for sound and visual effects.
Cate Blanchett won best actress for her role in Blue Jasmine. Photo: AFP
Matthew McConaughey accepts the best actor Oscar for Dallas Buyers Club. Photo: AFP
For her role in Woody Allen's film Blue Jasmine in which she portrays a woman losing her mind, Cate Blanchett became the first Australian woman to win two Oscars for best actress.
"As random and as subjective as this award is, it means a great deal in a year of extraordinary - yet again - extraordinary performances by women," she told the audience.
In 2005, Blanchett won the best supporting actress Oscar for her portrayal of Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator and has been nominated six times.
As predicted, Matthew McConaughey took the best actor prize for his role in Dallas Buyers Club as real life rodeo cowboy Ron Woodroof, who smuggled HIV drugs into the United States.
Lupita Nyong'o accepts the Oscar for best supporting actress for 12 Years a Slave. Photo: AFP
The 44-year-old actor, formerly a rom-com regular whose roles centred on his good looks, lost 23kg to play Woodroof in the low budget indie drama.
During his speech, he thanked God "because that's who I look up to. He's graced my life with opportunities that I know are not of my hand or any other human hand."
Newcomer Lupita Nyong'o won the best supporting actress Oscar for 12 Years a Slave. The Kenyan actress paid tribute to her character, slave worker Patsey, saluting her for her "guidance", the BBC reports.
"So much joy in my life is thanks to so much pain in someone else's," said the 31-year-old, who celebrated her birthday this weekend.
Jared Leto won the first Oscar of the night, picking up best supporting actor for his role Dallas Buyers Club.
Leto, who played a transgender woman, dedicated his award to "those who have ever felt injustice because of who they are, or who you love".
In an emotional speech he thanked his mother "for teaching me to dream". "This is for the 36 million people out there who have lost the battle to Aids," he said.
Jared Leto accepting the best supporting actor award for Dallas Buyers Club. Photo: AFP
Frozen, which recently tipped US$1 billion at the global box office, was named best animated feature film ahead of Despicable Me 2, The Croods, The Wind Rises and Ernest & Celestine.
Italy's The Great Beauty - La Grande Bellezza - won the best foreign language film, beating contenders from Denmark, Belgium, Cambodia and Palestine.
It marked Italy's 11th win - the last was 1997's Life is Beautiful, which also won best actor for Roberto Benigni.
