12 Years A Slave prevails, American Hustle shut out at 86th Academy Awards

Erik Anderson March 2, 2014

After one of the most unpredictable races in recent history, in the end the film that everybody expected to win at the start of the season did. 12 Years A Slave took home the most important award of the night at the 86th Annual Academy Awards, and will now forever be in the history books. Steve McQueen's film took home a total of three awards (Best Supporting Actress Lupita Nyong'o and its Adapted Screenplay win were the others), tied with acting big shot Dallas Buyers Club, whose central actors Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto grabbed both male acting awards, while the film also nabbed the Makeup & Hairstyling prize.

The other big winner of the night was space drama Gravity, which only won one above-the-line award (best Director for helmer Alfonso Cuarón), but a slew of technical awards to take its total to a whopping seven wins, by far the most of the night: Cinematography, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Score, Film Editing, and Visual Effects.

The night's biggest loser was David O. Russell's American Hustle, which was a co-leader in nominations going into the show, but completely shut out by the end of it. Meanwhile, Cate Blanchett won her second Academy Award for her leading role in Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine, as expected, and Spike Jonze won his first for the Original Screenplay of Her.

Check out the full list of winners below, and come discuss the on our forums.

Best Picture
12 Years A Slave

Best Directing
Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity)

Best Actor in a Leading Role
Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club)

Best Actress in a Leading Role
Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)

Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club)

Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Lupita Nyong'o (12 Years A Slave)

Best Writing (Original Screenplay)
Her

Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
12 Years A Slave

Best Animated Feature
Frozen

Best Foreign Language Film
The Great Beauty

Best Documentary Feature
20 Feet From Stardom

Best Documentary Short
The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life

Best Short Film (Animated)
Mr. Hublot

Best Short Film (Live Action)
Helium

Best Music (Original Score)
Gravity

Best Music (Original Song)
Let It Go (Frozen)

Best Film Editing
Gravity

Best Cinematography
Gravity

Best Production Design
The Great Gatsby

Best Costume Design
The Great Gatsby

Best Makeup & Hairstyling
Dallas Buyers Club

Best Sound Mixing
Gravity

Best Sound Editing
Gravity

Best Visual Effects
Gravity

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.