Although it did not take home the top prize - that went to Steve McQueen’s “12 Years A Slave” - it was still a big night for the “Gravity,” who led the 86th annual Academy Awards with seven Oscars, including a history-making best director win for Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron.
Cuaron, the mastermind behind the 3-D space thriller, became the first Latino filmmaker to take home an Oscar for best director.
“It was a transformative experience,” said Cuaron, who spent more than five years filming and developing the visual effects for the movie. “For a lot of people, that transformation was wisdom. For me, it was the color of my hair.”
While the director has drawn praise in the U.S., some Mexicans have been critical of his success because the attention came for a Hollywood release and not a Mexican-themed film. So many felt the accolades have little significance in Mexico.
"I'm Mexican so I hope some Mexicans were rooting for me," he told reporters backstage.
The 52-year-old director thanked his star, Sandra Bullock, the sole person on screen for much of the drama.
“Sandra, you are ‘Gravity.’ You’re the soul, heart of the film…,” he said during his acceptance speech. “One of the best people I have ever met.”
Bullock lost the best actress award to Cate Blanchett, the star of Woody Allen’s “Blue Jasmine.”
Among “Gravity’s” list of accolades was first-time winner Emmanuel Lubeski, who finally took home an Oscar statue after being nominated six times.
“I truly want to share this award with the cast and crew,” said Lubeski, the second Mexican ever to win for cinematography. “I want to thank my friend and teacher Alfonso Cuaron - your creativity and drive is incredible.”
"Gravity" also won for editing, score, visual effects, sound mixing and sound editing.
Along with winning best picture, "12 Years a Slave" made history as the first film to win the top award directed by a black filmmaker, McQueen, who dedicated his award to "all of the people who endured slavery and the 21 million people who still suffer slavery today."
Taking home the award for acting in McQueen's film was first-time winner was Mexican-born, Kenyan actress Lupita Nyong’o for her harrowing portrayal of a slave who’s caught her sadistic master’s eye. She took home the best supporting actress award, beating out big contenders such as Jennifer Lawrence and Julia Roberts.
“It’s doesn’t escape me for one moment that so much joy in my life is due to so much pain in someone else’s,” she said. “and so I want to salute the spirit of Patsey, for her guidance.”
She continued: “When I look down at this golden statue, may it remind me and every little child that no matter where you’re from, your dreams are valid. Thank you.”
Nyong'o is the sixth black actress to win in the supporting actress category, following Hattie McDaniel ("Gone with the Wind"), Whoopi Goldberg ("Ghost"), Jennifer Hudson ("Dreamgirls"), Mo'Nique ("Precious") and Octavia Spencer ("The Help").
Also taking home the supporting actor award was Jared Leto for “Dallas Buyers Club.” In an emotional speech dedicated to his mother and her inspiration for following your dreams, Leto also mentioned the protesters in Venezuela and the Ukraine.
“We are here and as you struggle to make your dreams happen, to live the impossible, we’re thinking of you,” he said.
Leto’s co-star Matthew McConaughey won best actor.
Taking home the award for best original song, "Frozen" songwriter Robert Lopez, who is Filipino, became one of the few people to win an Oscar, a Tony, an Emmy and a Grammy.
In her second time hosting, openly gay Ellen DeGeneres sought to make celebrities more like plain folks. She passed out slices of pizza to the front rows at the Dolby Theatre, then passed around a hat to pay for it. She also tweeted a "selfie" with such stars as Meryl Streep, Julie Roberts, Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Pitt and Nyong'o. The shot "made history," DeGeneres told the audience later. It was retweeted more than two million times.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/moviesnow/la-et-mn-oscars-steve-mcqueen-12-years-a-slave-who-is-he-20140303,0,4785433.story#ixzz2uxNbAq7h
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Oscars 2014: For Steve McQueen, a fast rise and a strange journey
The best picture win for Steve McQueen and his “12 Years a Slave” on Sunday may not have been a surprise for the many who saw the movie on the fall-festival circuit and predicted big things for it even then.
But, in a larger sense, it was a highly unexpected turn for the producer-director, who just six years ago was an acclaimed provocateur artist in his native Britain who had never made a feature film. Even immensely talented directors can pay decades of dues before landing on the Oscar podium (see under: the Coen Bros), but McQueen has gotten there in what in movie terms is the bat of an eye.
At the Cannes Film Festival in 2008, McQueen, then not even 40, premiered his first movie, “Hunger,” to a somewhat unsuspecting audience. Though his art was known by some, even many of the plugged-in cineastes who attended the festival had little idea who he was. That famous name only added to the confusion.
FULL COVERAGE: Oscars 2014 | Complete list of winners
But, in a larger sense, it was a highly unexpected turn for the producer-director, who just six years ago was an acclaimed provocateur artist in his native Britain who had never made a feature film. Even immensely talented directors can pay decades of dues before landing on the Oscar podium (see under: the Coen Bros), but McQueen has gotten there in what in movie terms is the bat of an eye.
At the Cannes Film Festival in 2008, McQueen, then not even 40, premiered his first movie, “Hunger,” to a somewhat unsuspecting audience. Though his art was known by some, even many of the plugged-in cineastes who attended the festival had little idea who he was. That famous name only added to the confusion.
FULL COVERAGE: Oscars 2014 | Complete list of winners
Quickly, though, the film -- about the IRA activist Bobby Sands’ famous prison hunger strike in 1980 -- began gaining buzz, some of the intestinal fortitude variety. The film contained a single 18-minute take of Sands (Michael Fassbender) talking to a priest before embarking on what would likely be a fatal mission, and those of us who sat at the premiere emerged energized by both a striking new voice in cinema and the fact that it could make a single take, tedious in some contexts, fly by like the most fleet action-movie sequence.
Soon many were recommending the movie, and it gained an art house cachet. Several years later, at the Toronto International Film Festival, McQueen made good on the promise shown at Cannes with "Hunger" by unveiling his sophomore effort, “Shame,” about a different kind of obsessiveness. Focusing on sex addiction and its effects, the film also starred Fassbender, and it was quickly clear the director and actor had renewed their collaboration to great effect, coming up with a film that saw them push the bounds both of content and shotmaking.
“Why do I want to do all this with Steve?" Fassbender said to me in an interview upon the release of the film. "Because what's massively evident and refreshing about [him] is that he has no rule book about making a film. He'll never rule anything out."
“Why do I want to do all this with Steve?" Fassbender said to me in an interview upon the release of the film. "Because what's massively evident and refreshing about [him] is that he has no rule book about making a film. He'll never rule anything out."
PHOTOS: Red carpet arrivals | Show highlights
Or as producer Iain Canning said: "Steve combines an incredibly creative instinct with an ability to ask 'Why is something done that way? Why do we have to do it that way?'"
Talking to McQueen, one quickly found a forthright, if occasionally prickly, subject, willing to take and discuss risks many seasoned filmmakers weren't. His decision for single takes, often held uncomfortably long (the Patsy whipping scene in “12 Years,” which in its way was foreshadowed by Carey Mulligan singing a slow cover of “New York, New York” in “Shame” and the Sands-priest conversation in “Hunger,” for instance) was the most visually bold. But it was also evident in all sorts of other angles, dialogue and choices. A slavery epic was, in a sense, just a version of this why-not thinking writ large.
Or as producer Iain Canning said: "Steve combines an incredibly creative instinct with an ability to ask 'Why is something done that way? Why do we have to do it that way?'"
Talking to McQueen, one quickly found a forthright, if occasionally prickly, subject, willing to take and discuss risks many seasoned filmmakers weren't. His decision for single takes, often held uncomfortably long (the Patsy whipping scene in “12 Years,” which in its way was foreshadowed by Carey Mulligan singing a slow cover of “New York, New York” in “Shame” and the Sands-priest conversation in “Hunger,” for instance) was the most visually bold. But it was also evident in all sorts of other angles, dialogue and choices. A slavery epic was, in a sense, just a version of this why-not thinking writ large.
Since "12 Years" came out, film fans have been admiring the audacity of the movie and its conceit -- a beautifully shot film about the brutal subject of slavery. Visionary as it is, this kind of filmmaking comes with a degree of meticulousness. “Not a detail escapes Steve’s attention,” Fassbender laughed to me at Toronto this year when I recalled a comment McQueen had once made to me in which he said (somewhat) jokingly that I misunderstood a shade of meaning in a previous interview.
PHOTOS: Winners' room | Behind the scenes | Quotes from the stars
PHOTOS: Winners' room | Behind the scenes | Quotes from the stars
The at-times officious director didn’t let his guard down much on the award-season circuit, but after a somewhat nervous speech accepting the picture prize Sunday, he stepped away from the mike and offered a joyous few jumps that could have come right out of a vintage music video.
Backstage, he acknowledged how strange a journey it has been, and how that led to an unscripted moment with a refreshingly un-Oscars feel.
"I mean everyone's talking about the jump, but it's just really truly, I was just so ecstatic, so happy for us all," he said. "And, you know, it's one of those moments in life where it might not ever happen again. It's not a dream. It's a reality. So emotions, physicality just takes over. So, you know, Van Halen. 'Jump.'"
Backstage, he acknowledged how strange a journey it has been, and how that led to an unscripted moment with a refreshingly un-Oscars feel.
"I mean everyone's talking about the jump, but it's just really truly, I was just so ecstatic, so happy for us all," he said. "And, you know, it's one of those moments in life where it might not ever happen again. It's not a dream. It's a reality. So emotions, physicality just takes over. So, you know, Van Halen. 'Jump.'"
ALSO:
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/moviesnow/la-et-mn-oscars-steve-mcqueen-12-years-a-slave-who-is-he-20140303,0,4785433.story#ixzz2uxNbAq7h
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