’12 Years a Slave’ Wins Best Picture at the 2014 Oscars
In the least surprising move from the 2014 Oscars, Steve McQueen's hard-to-watch, but critically acclaimed '12 Years a Slave' took home Best Picture.
The honor was certainly expected as the film scored Best Picture honors at the Golden Globes, the BAFTA awards and the AFI Awards, among other top honors. Nominated for the Best Picture Oscar alongside '12 Years' were 'American Hustle,' 'Captain Phillips,' 'Dallas Buyers Club,' 'The Wolf of Wall Street,' 'Gravity,' 'Her,' 'Nebraska' and 'Philomena.'
The film starred Chiwetel Ejiofor as Solomon Northup, an African-American musician born a free man in pre-Civil War upstate New York who is captured and sold into slavery, where he remains for 12 years. Aside from Ejiofor's performance, the film skyrocketed supporting actress Lupita Nyong'o, who won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, into the spotlight for her turn as Patsey, the favored slave of the film's most sadistic slave owner (played by Michael Fassbender). Also featured in the film were Benedict Cumberbatch, Brad Pitt (who also produced the film through his Plan B production company), Sarah Poulson, Paul Giamatti and Paul Dano, among others.