{"id":28493,"date":"2014-03-03T16:49:11","date_gmt":"2014-03-03T21:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=28493"},"modified":"2014-03-03T20:34:12","modified_gmt":"2014-03-04T01:34:12","slug":"12-years-a-slavemakes-oscar-history-by-winning-best-picture-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=28493","title":{"rendered":"&#8217;12 Years a Slave&#8217; Makes Oscar History by Winning Best Picture Award"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><br \/>\nBy MICHAEL CIEPLY and BROOKS BARNES<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/O14030313.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/O14030313.jpg\" alt=\"O14030313\" width=\"216\" height=\"87\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-28516\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>LOS ANGELES \u2014 <\/strong>In a triumph long deferred, \u201c12 Years a Slave\u201d 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.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019d like to thank this amazing story,\u201d said Steve McQueen, the British-born filmmaker who grasped a prize that has eluded African-American directors and their movies since the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave its first Oscars in 1929.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEveryone deserves not just to survive, but to live,\u201d said Mr. McQueen, who dedicated the film to those who had endured slavery, both in the past and in the present.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Only minutes before, Mr. McQueen had been overlooked for the directing award, which went to Alfonso Cuar\u00f3n for \u201cGravity,\u201d a 3-D blockbuster whose story of survival in space had been locked with Mr. McQueen\u2019s film and David O. Russell\u2019s \u201cAmerican Hustle\u201d in a ferocious contest for the best picture statuette.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"526\" height=\"296\" src=\"http:\/\/oscar.go.com\/embed\/VDKA0_68c2kbjp\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In the end, Fox Searchlight, which distributed \u201c12 Years a Slave,\u201d about a 19th-century man, Solomon Northup, who was kidnapped into slavery, carried the day with the help of an advertising slogan that reminded Oscar voters of their chance to make history. \u201cIt\u2019s time,\u201d said the ads.<\/p>\n<p> \u201c12 Years a Slave\u201d won only three awards, including best supporting actress and best adapted screenplay, while \u201cGravity\u201d won seven, the most of any film.<\/p>\n<p>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 \u201cDallas Buyers Club.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The best actress award went to Cate Blanchett for \u201cBlue Jasmine,\u201d 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.<br \/>\n\u201cThank you so much, Woody, for casting me,\u201d said Ms. Blanchett, who never mentioned the blowup, but made a point of thanking Mr. Allen for using \u201cBlue Jasmine\u201d to tell a woman\u2019s story.<\/p>\n<p>Jennifer Lawrence followed minutes later to present the best actor award to Matthew McConaughey for \u201cDallas Buyers Club.\u201d \u201cWhy are you laughing?\u201d Ms. Lawrence challenged the audience, which has come to expect a trip, fall or charming faux pas every time she takes the stage.<\/p>\n<p>But she pulled it off without a hitch, and Mr. McConaughey thanked God and everyone else with a toothy movie star smile.<\/p>\n<p>John Ridley, who won the best adapted screenplay Oscar for \u201c12 Years a Slave,\u201d invoked the suffering individual at the heart of his story. \u201cAll the praise goes to Solomon Northup,\u201d said Mr. Ridley. \u201cThese are his words, this is his life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Spike Jonze won the original script Oscar for \u201cHer,\u201d a Warner Bros. film that had a powerful following, particularly among young viewers, who responded to its quirky story of one man\u2019s love affair with his digital operating system.<\/p>\n<p>It was the only win for \u201cHer,\u201d but that was enough to lift it above \u201cAmerican Hustle,\u201d which was slammed hard by the voters.<\/p>\n<p>Widely seen as one of three films in contention for the top honors, it left empty-handed, a humiliation for a film with 10 nominations and one of the better box office totals, with about $146 million in ticket sales.<br \/>\nNo one could accuse this show of taking itself too seriously. At Ms. DeGeneres\u2019 behest, a stack of pizzas arrived with a red-hatted delivery guy at the two-hour mark, and both Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts were among those who dug in.<\/p>\n<p>At the halfway mark, Ms. Degeneres, now in a white suit, prowled the audience like a cat, handing out lottery tickets to runners-up, and trying to break a record for retweets with a \u201cselfie\u201d that found her stacked with movie stars, including Ms. Lawrence, Ms. Streep and Kevin Spacey.<\/p>\n<p>Twitter\u2019s website went down soon afterward, with early reports indicating that it failed to handle the pop of traffic. Later reports said Ms. DeGeneres\u2019s \u201cselfie\u201d was retweeted more than 1 million times, breaking the site\u2019s previous record, which was set by President Barack Obama after his re-election.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have made history tonight,\u201d said Ms. DeGeneres.<\/p>\n<p>Lupita Nyong\u2019o, who had been charming Oscar voters with her fresh face and mostly modest demeanor for months, cut loose just a little bit backstage. \u201cI think it belongs to me!\u201d Ms. Nyong\u2019o replied to a question about who deserved credit for the \u201cgolden man\u201d in her arms.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCaptain Phillips\u201d also 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\u2019t even been nominated, and the film slipped into the peculiar twilight reserved for movies, like \u201cTrue Grit,\u201d that shine brightly, then mysteriously fade on Oscar night.<\/p>\n<p>If there were the usual number of winners, it felt like a year of heavy losses as the annual memorial sequence scrolled through a list of film figures who died since the last show. Harold Ramis, Karen Black, Hal Needham, Saul Zaentz, Elmore Leonard, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Shirley Temple Black were just a few of those remembered, and, with them, not one golden era, but several, seemed to be passing.<\/p>\n<p>Weirdly, the night\u2019s proceedings were punctuated by a theme of movie heroics, though the year\u2019s films were populated more by survivors, as in \u201c12 Years a Slave\u201d and \u201cCaptain Phillips,\u201d or antiheroes, as in \u201cThe Wolf of Wall Street\u201d and \u201cAmerican Hustle.\u201d The show featured a montage of classic movie heroes crammed mostly with references to characters portrayed in films past \u2014 Abraham Lincoln, Gandhi, Harvey Milk and a dozen or so others.<\/p>\n<p>Oscar lore has it that the Academy has a soft spot for Holocaust stories, like \u201cSchindler\u2019s List,\u201d the best picture winner in 1994. This year, it bestowed a documentary short Oscar on \u201cThe Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life,\u201d about Alice Herz Sommer, a 110-year-old Holocaust survivor who died just days before the ceremony.<\/p>\n<p>The best documentary feature was \u201c20 Feet From Stardom,\u201d 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 \u2014 \u201cPhilomena,\u201d \u201cAugust: Osage County,\u201d \u201cLee Daniels\u2019 The Butler\u201d \u2014 fall short of the biggest awards.<\/p>\n<p>In what has become a secondary category \u2014 few here will watch subtitled films \u2014 there was no surprise when Italy picked up another best foreign film Oscar, its 11th, for \u201cThe Great Beauty.\u201d The film, about the life-reckoning of a literary Roman, had been picking up pre-Oscar awards all season, though it had taken in just $2.2 million at the domestic box office since its release by Janus Films in November.<\/p>\n<p>The season had brought an unusual surge of black-themed Oscar contenders \u2014 \u201cFruitvale Station,\u201d \u201cLee Daniels\u2019 The Butler\u201d and \u201cMandela: Long Walk to Freedom\u201d among them. But in the home stretch, only \u201c12 Years a Slave\u201d was left standing, as the obvious choice for Academy members who might agree with Fox Searchlight, that it was, indeed, time for a black filmmaker to claim the best picture statuette.<\/p>\n<p>By the end of the night, with most of Hollywood eager to move past the pageantry, the rainstorms that pounded Los Angeles on Friday and Saturday even seemed appropriate: Enough with this Oscar business. Here comes Darren Aronofsky\u2019s \u201cNoah\u201d and the blockbuster season.<\/p>\n<p>Certainly, the moviegoing audience was looking forward. This weekend, an action thriller, \u201cNon-Stop,\u201d and a religious drama, \u201cSon of God,\u201d sold more tickets than the best picture nominees \u201cNebraska,\u201d \u201cHer\u201d or \u201cDallas Buyers Club\u201d had scraped together since their releases.<br \/>\n<em><br \/>\nCOURTESY:THE NEW YORK TIMES<\/em><\/p>\n<div id=\"tweetbutton28493\" class=\"tw_button\" style=\"float:right;margin-left:10px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdbsjeyaraj.com%2Fdbsj%2F%3Fp%3D28493&amp;text=%26%238217%3B12%20Years%20a%20Slave%26%238217%3B%20Makes%20Oscar%20History%20by%20Winning%20Best%20Picture%20Award&amp;related=&amp;lang=en&amp;count=horizontal\" class=\"twitter-share-button\"  style=\"width:55px;height:22px;background:transparent url('https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-tweet-button\/tweetn.png') no-repeat  0 0;text-align:left;text-indent:-9999px;display:block;\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By MICHAEL CIEPLY and BROOKS BARNES LOS ANGELES \u2014 In a triumph long deferred, \u201c12 Years a Slave\u201d 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. \u201cI\u2019d like to thank this amazing story,\u201d said Steve &#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=28493\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading &lsquo;&#8217;12 Years a Slave&#8217; Makes Oscar History by Winning Best Picture Award&rsquo; &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28493"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28493"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28528,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28493\/revisions\/28528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}