Overview
As was expected, Cate Blanchett has scooped up the Best Actress Oscar for her role in Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine. She used her time on stage wisely, opening with a joke (shouting at the audience "Sit down! You're too old to be standing!"), praising the abundant creative talent in Australia and telling rival nominee Julia Roberts "Julia, hashtag, suck it!" (presumably an in-joke). She also made a strong point about the validity, both creative and financial, of films with female protagonists at the core:
"And perhaps those of us in the industry who are still foolishly clinging to the idea that female films, with women at the centre, are niche experiences… they are not. Audiences want to see them, and, in fact, they earn money. The world is round, people!"
https://youtube.com/watch?v=ifvZnFvpTl4
Lupita Nyong'o also deserves a mention for eloquence under pressure, with parts of her very emotional acceptance speech for Best Supporting Actress still managing to sound truly poetic. Best Supporting Actor Jared Leto very sweetly thanked his mother and brother before teetering momentarily over the awkward-actor-zone when he murmured about "all the dreamers out there".
Best Original Screenplay winner Spike Jonze was brief and to the point. Those of you who speak Spanish will probably appreciate Alfonso Cuarón's Best Director acceptance speech (you'll at least understand the whole thing), and the sight of Steve McQueen literally jumping for joy after his 12 Years a Slave won Best Film will no doubt become a favourite image around the globe.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=yaZ1CODR-fs
We do need to mention Matthew McConaughey, who, in an Oscars featuring predominantly classy, coherent acceptance speeches, gets major points deducted for his turn at the microphone after winning Best Actor. After thanking God, family and those involved in the film, he took a scary detour down a very strange, rambling avenue when he revealed that when he was 25, his hero was… himself, ten years later. That's right. The story was a little bit hard (in fact, excruciating) to follow, but from what we can gather, Matthew McConaughey's personal hero is, and has been for some time, Matthew McConaughey. Go figure.
So to round-up then, the major winners at the 2014 Academy Awards were:
Best original screenplay: Spike Jonze for Her
Best director: Alfonso Cuarón for Gravity
Best film: 12 Years a Slave
Best supporting actor: Jared Leto for Dallas Buyers Club
Best supporting actress: Lupita Nyong'o for 12 Years a Slave
Best actor: Matthew McConaughey for Dallas Buyers Club
Best actress: Cate Blanchett for Blue Jasmine
Looks like our predictions proved to be pretty spot-on, didn't they? Oh, and take comfort, whilst JLaw didn't win an award, she did manage to fall over again, this time on the red carpet. So there's that.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=4tUsX2U-dPA
More from the Oscars: Meryl, Lupita and Amy can't resist dancing to Pharrell's Happy either, Ellen takes the ultimate Oscars selfie and orders pizza and the Oscars drinking game.