Oscars 2014: Cate Blanchett, Matthew McConaughey, 12 Years A Slave win top honours (see pics)

Hollywood named the brutal, unshrinking historical drama "12 Years a Slave" best picture at the 86th annual Academy Awards.Steve McQueen's slavery odyssey, based on Solomon Northup's 1853 memoir, has been hailed as a landmark corrective to the movie industry's long omission of slavery stories and years of whiter tales like 1940 best-picture winner "Gone With the Wind."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," said McQueen, who promptly bounced into the arms of his cast. "This is the most important legacy of Solomon Northup."Actress Cate Blanchett was named the best actress in a leading role at the 86th Academy Awards for her performance in Woody Allen's 'Blue Jasmine'.Blanchett played Jasmine, a formerly wealthy woman who moves in with her sister after the break-up of her marriage.The actress has essayed the role fluidly despite its complexities, and Blanchett, in her acceptance speech said the film with "extraordinary screenplay", has been a "synthesis of my theatre work".She acknowledged the work of all the best actress nominees this year - Amy Adams ('American Hustle'), Sandra Bullock ('Gravity'), Judi Dench ('Philomena') and Meryl Streep ('August: Osage County').Apart from Dench, all the ladies were present at the dazzling gala, but Blanchett applauded the veteran for having a flourishing career even at the age of 78.With seven Oscars including a history-making best director award for Alfonso Cuaron, the force of "Gravity" exerted itself at the 86th annual Academy Awards.Even with several awards to go, the 3-D space spectacle was assured to be the most honored film at the Dolby Theatre ceremony hosted nimbly by Ellen DeGeneres. The Mexican Cuaron is the first Latino filmmaker to take best director."It was a transformative experience," said Cuaron, who spent some five years making the film and developing its visual effects. "For a lot of people, that transformation was wisdom. For me, it was the color of my hair."He thanked his star, Sanda Bullock, the sole person on screen for much of the lost-in-space drama: "Sandra, you are 'Gravity.'" Bullock lost the best actress award to Cate Blanchett, the star of Woody Allen's "Blue Jasmine."Matthew McConaughey won the best actor Oscar for his career defining performance in "Dallas Buyers Club", a real-life inspired drama about an HIV positive man who smuggles drugs for AIDS patients.The 44-year-old actor was being touted as the favourite in an exceptionally tight race in the best actor category after he won the Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild awards. In his acceptance speech, the actor acknowledged his fellow nominees -- Leonardo DiCaprio ("The Wolf of Wall Street"), another front-runner, Chiwetel Ejiofor ("12 Years A Slave"), Bruce Dern ("Nebraska") and Christian Bale ("American Hustle")."Thank you to all the nominees, all these performances were impeccable in my opinion. I didn't see a false note anywhere.... These are three things on my count that I need each day... One is something to look up to, another is something to look forward and another is something to chase," McConaughey said.