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

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




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.