Season 86
The Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognise excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors and writers, for the preceding year.
The first Academy Awards ceremony was held on Thursday 16 May 1929, at the Hotel Roosevelt in Hollywood to honour outstanding film achievements of 1927 and 1928. It was hosted by actor Douglas Fairbanks and director William C. DeMille.
The Academy Awards traditionally air live in South Africa on one of DStv's movie channels, with a delayed broadcast airing on the same night on M-Net.
The 86th Academy Awards ceremony took place on Sunday 2 March, 2014. Held at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California, the awards were hosted by Ellen DeGeneres.
The 86th Academy Awards aired live in South Africa on M-Net Movies Premiere on Monday 3 March 2014, at 03h00, preceded by the Red Carpet Live on E! Entertainment at 00h30.
A delayed broadcast of the awards aired on M-Net on Monday 3 March 2014, at 19h30. The ceremony was three hours long.
2014 Winners
Best Motion Picture of the Year
American Hustle
Captain Phillips
Dallas Buyers Club
Gravity
Her
Nebraska
Philomena
12 Years a Slave
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Christian Bale - American Hustle
Bruce Dern - Nebraska
Leonardo DiCaprio - The Wolf of Wall Street
Chiwetel Ejiofor - 12 Years a Slave
Matthew McConaughey - Dallas Buyers Club
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Amy Adams - American Hustle
Cate Blanchett - Blue Jasmine
Sandra Bullock - Gravity
Judi Dench - Philomena
Meryl Streep - August: Osage County
Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
Barkhad Abdi - Captain Phillips
Bradley Cooper - American Hustle
Michael Fassbender - 12 Years a Slave
Jonah Hill - The Wolf of Wall Street
Jared Leto - Dallas Buyers Club
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
Sally Hawkins - Blue Jasmine
Jennifer Lawrence - American Hustle
Lupita Nyang'o - 12 Years a Slave
Julia Roberts - August: Osage County
June Squibb - Nebraska
Best Animated Feature Film of the Year
The Croods
Despicable Me 2
Ernest & Celestine
Frozen
The Wind Rises
Achievement in Cinematography
The Grandmaster - Philippe Le Sourd
Gravity - Emmanuel Lubezki
Inside Llewyn Davis - Bruno Delbonnel
Nebraska - Phedon Papamichael
Prisoners - Roger A. Deakins
Achievement in Costume Design
American Hustle - Michael Wilkinson
The Grandmaster - William Chang Suk Ping
The Great Gatsby - Catherine Martin
The Invisible Woman - Michael O'Connor
12 Years a Slave - Patricia Norris
Achievement in Directing
American Hustle - David O. Russell
Gravity - Alfonso Cuaron
Nebraska - Alexander Payne
12 Years a Slave - Steve McQueen
The Wolf of Wall Street - Martin Scorsese
Best Documentary Feature
The Act of Killing - Joshua Oppenheimer and Signe Byrge Sorensen
Cutie and the Boxer - Zachary Heinzerling and Lydia Dean Pilcher
Dirty Wars - Richard Rowley and Jeremy Scahill
The Square - Jehane Noujaim and Karim Amer
20 Feet from Stardom - Morgan Neville, Gil Friesen, and Caitrin Rogers
Best Documentary Short Subject
CaveDigger - Jeffrey Karoff
Facing Fear - Jason Cohen
Karama Has No Walls - Sara Ishaq
The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life - Malcolm Clarke and Nicholas Reed
Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall - Edgar Barens
Achievement in Film Editing
American Hustle - Jay Cassidy, Crispin Struthers, Alan Baumgarten
Captain Phillips - Christopher Rouse
Dallas Buyers Club - John Mac McMurphy and Martin Pensa
Gravity - Alfonso Cuaron and Mark Sanger
12 Years a Slave - Joe Walker
Best Foreign Language Film of the Year
Broken Circle Breakdown - Belgium
The Great Beauty - Italy
The Hunt - Denmark
The Missing Picture - Cambodia
Omar - Palestine
Achievement in Make-Up and Hairstyling
Dallas Buyers Club - Adruitha Lee and Robins Mathews
Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa - Stephen Prouty
The Lone Ranger - Joel Harlow and Gloria Pasqua-Casny
Achievement for Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score)
The Book Thief - John Williams
Gravity - Steven Price
Her - William Butler and Owen Pallett
Philomena - Alexandre Desplat
Saving Mr. Banks - Thomas Newman
Achievement for Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Song)
Alone Yet Not Alone from Alone Yet Not Alone (Disqualified)
Music by Bruce Broughton
Lyrics by Dennis Spiegel
Happy from Despicable Me 2
Music and Lyrics by Pharrell Williams
Let It Go from Frozen
Music and lyrics by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez
The Moon Song from Her
Music by Karen O
Lyrics by Karen O and Spike Jonze
Ordinary Love from Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
Music by U2
Lyrics by Bono
Achievement in Production Design
American Hustle
Production Design: Judy Becker; Set Decoration: Heather Loeffler
Gravity
Production Design: Andy Nicholson; Set Decoration: Rosie Goodwin and Joanne Woollard
The Great Gatsby
Production Design: Catherine Martin; Set Decoration: Beverley Dunn
Her
Production Design: K.K. Barrett; Set Decoration: Gene Serdena
12 Years a Slave
Production Design: Adam Stockhausen; Set Decoration: Alice Baker
Best Animated Short Film
Feral - Daniel Sousa and Dan Golden
Get a Horse! - Lauren MacMullan and Dorothy McKim
Mr. Hublot - Laurent Witz and Alexandre Espigares
Possessions - Shuhei Morita
Room on the Broom - Max Lang and Jan Lachauer
Best Live Action Short Film
Aquel No Era Yo (That Wasn't Me) - Esteban Crespo
Avant Que De Tout Perdre (Just before Losing Everything) - Xavier Legrand and Alexandre Gavras
Helium - Anders Walter and Kim Magnusson
Pitääkö Mun Kaikki Hoitaa? (Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?) - Selma Vilhunen and Kirsikka Saari
The Voorman Problem - Mark Gill and Baldwin Li
Achievement in Sound Editing
All Is Lost - Steve Boeddeker and Richard Hymns
Captain Phillips - Oliver Tarney
Gravity - Glenn Freemantle
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug - Brent Burge
Lone Survivor - Wylie Stateman
Achievement in Sound Mixing
Captain Phillips - Chris Burdon, Mark Taylor, Mike Prestwood Smith and Chris Munro
Gravity - Skip Lievsay, Niv Adiri, Christopher Benstead and Chris Munro
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug - Christopher Boyes, Michael Hedges, Michael Semanick and Tony Johnson
Inside Llewyn Davis - Skip Lievsay, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland
Lone Survivor - Andy Koyama, Beau Borders and David Brownlow
Achievement in Visual Effects
Gravity - Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, Dave Shirk and Neil Corbould
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug - Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and Eric Reynolds
Iron Man 3 - Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Erik Nash and Dan Sudick
The Lone Ranger - Tim Alexander, Gary Brozenich, Edson Williams and John Frazier
Star Trek Into Darkness - Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Ben Grossmann and Burt Dalton
Adapted Screenplay
Before Midnight - Written by Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke
Captain Phillips - Screenplay by Billy Ray
Philomena - Screenplay by Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope
12 Years a Slave - Screenplay by John Ridley
The Wolf of Wall Street - Screenplay by Terence Winter
Original Screenplay
American Hustle - Written by Eric Warren Singer and David O. Russell
Blue Jasmine - Written by Woody Allen
Dallas Buyers Club - Written by Craig Borten & Melisa Wallack
Her - Written by Spike Jonze
Nebraska - Written by Bob Nelson
About the Awards
Far from the eagerly anticipated and globally televised event it is today, the first Academy Awards ceremony took place out of the public eye during an Academy banquet at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.
Two hundred and seventy people attended the 16 May, 1929 dinner in the hotel's Blossom Room; guest tickets cost $5. It was a long affair filled with speeches, but Academy President Douglas Fairbanks made quick work of handing out the statuettes.
There was little suspense when the awards were presented that night: the recipients had already been announced three months earlier. That all changed the following year, however, when the Academy decided to keep the results secret until the ceremony but gave a list in advance to newspapers for publication at 11 p.m. on the night of the Awards.
This policy continued until 1940 when, much to the Academy's consternation, the Los Angeles Times broke the embargo and published the names of the winners in its evening edition – which was readily available to guests arriving for the ceremony. That prompted the Academy in 1941 to adopt the sealed-envelope system still in use today.
Fifteen statuettes were awarded at the first ceremony for cinematic achievements in 1927 and 1928. The first Best Actor winner was acclaimed German tragedian Emil Jannings, who had to return to Europe before the ceremony.
The Academy granted his request to receive the trophy early, making his statuette the very first Academy Award ever presented.
The first presentation was the only one to escape a media audience; by the second year, enthusiasm for the Awards was such that a Los Angeles radio station produced a live one-hour broadcast of the event. The ceremony has been broadcast ever since.
The Academy continued to hand out the awards at banquets – held at the Ambassador and Biltmore hotels – until 1942, when increased attendance made these dinner ceremonies impractical. Starting with the 16th Oscar ceremony, which was held at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, the event has always been held at a theatre.
In 1953, the first televised Oscar ceremony enabled millions throughout the United States and Canada to watch the proceedings. Broadcasting in colour began in 1966, affording home viewers a chance to fully experience the dazzling allure of the event.
Since 1969, the Oscar show has been broadcast internationally, now reaching movie fans in over 200 countries.