WATCH: ET Canada‘s Erin Cebula has the highlights from Hollywood’s biggest night.
TORONTO — The sci-fi blockbuster Gravity soared at the 86th Academy Awards on Sunday night with seven awards — but the drama 12 Years a Slave was named Best Picture.
Gravity earned Alfonso Cuarón an Oscar as Best Director. The movie, which has earned $705 million at the worldwide box office, also claimed awards for Achievement in Visual Effects, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Cinematography and Film Editing. It also earned an Original Score award for Steven Price.
In addition to winning the night’s top prize, 12 Years a Slave earned an Adapted Screenplay award for John Ridley and a Supporting Actress award for Lupita Nyong’o.
“It doesn’t escape me for one moment that so much joy in my life is thanks to so much pain in someone else’s,” said an emotional Nyong’o.
Also earning golden statues for their work on screen were Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto of Dallas Buyers Club, directed by Montreal Jean-Marc Vallée.
“This is for the 36 million people who have lost the battle to AIDS,” Leto said, “and to those of you who have ever felt injustice because of who you are or who you love, tonight I stand here in front of the world with you and for you.”
Dallas Buyers Club also earned Adruitha Lee and Robin Mathews an Oscar for Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling.
READ MORE: 5 moments from Oscar night
Cate Blanchett’s winning streak continued with the Oscar for Best Actress for her work in Blue Jasmine.
Blanchett paid tribute to the other nominees and thanked director Woody Allen for casting her in the movie.
Spike Jonze accepted the prize for Original Screenplay for Her.
READ MORE: Full Oscars coverage at ET Canada
It wasn’t a great night for Canadians. Toronto’s Owen Pallett and Montreal-based William Butler of Arcade Fire (Her) lost in the Original Score category and Vallée lost in the Film Editing category.
While not a Canadian film, The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life was honoured as Best Documentary Short Subject. It was produced by a team from Montreal, including producer Frederic Bohbot, director of photography Kieran Crilly, editor Carl Freed and composer Luc St-Pierre. Director Malcolm Clarke has lived in Montreal for two decades.
U2’s “Ordinary Love” from Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom lost the Original Song award to “Let It Go” from Frozen, which was named Best Animated Feature.
Catherine Martin, the wife of director of Baz Luhrmann, was on the Oscar stage twice for The Great Gatsby — once to accept the Costume Design award and once for winning Achievement in Production Design with Beverley Dunn.
The Academy voters chose Mr. Hubot as Best Animated Short Film and Helium as the Best Live Action Short Film.
The Best Foreign Language Film was Italy’s The Great Beauty. 20 Feet From Stardom, a look at back-up singers, won for Best Documentary Film.
Oscars host Ellen DeGeneres opened Hollywood’s biggest night with a monologue that poked fun at several nominees, including June Squibb, Barkhad Abdi and Jennifer Lawrence as well as special guest Liza Minnelli.
WATCH: The best (and worst) moments from the 86th annual Academy Awards
Later in the show, DeGeneres posed for a selfie with stars including Meryl Streep, Brad Pitt and Bradley Cooper — a photo retweeted so many times it caused Twitter to crash — and also handed out slices of pizza to Julia Roberts, Harrison Ford and Martin Scorsese.
There were performances from Pink and Bette Midler and presenters ranging from Sidney Poitier to Jim Carrey.
John Travolta took heat on social media for butchering the name of performer Idina Menzel.
The Academy Awards show was also a long one, clocking in at nearly three-and-a-half hours.
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