In what was an expected win, harrowing historical drama "12 Years a Slave" won the coveted best picture Oscar award on Sunday, highlighting the climax of the 86th Academy Awards.

The film tells the story of Solomon Northup, a free black man living in New York state who is kidnapped and sold into slavery in the South before the U.S. Civil War.

Directed by Steve McQueen, the film beat eight fellow nominees including "American Hustle," a crime comedy-drama film starring Bradley Cooper and Amy Adams, "Captain Phillips," a thriller directed by Paul Greengrass and starring Tom Hanks, as well as "Dallas Buyers Club," "Gravity," "Her," "Nebraska," "Philomena," and "The Wolf of Wall Street."

In the next two top awards, Cate Blanchett won best actress Oscar for her turn in Woody Allen's "Blue Jasmine," while Matthew McConaughey won best actor Oscar for “Dallas Buyers Club.”

Blanchett, who was the clear frontrunner for the award, beat fellow nominees Amy Adams in "American Hustle,” Sandra Bullock from "Gravity," Judi Dench in "Philomena" and Meryl Streep for her role in "August: Osage County.”

Jared Leto earned his first Oscar as a Supporting actor for his role in “Dallas Buyers Club,” where he plays a transgender woman diagnosed with AIDS. The movie also won an award for Makeup and Hairstyle.

Lupita Nyong’o, 31, won the Supporting Actress award for her role in “12 Years a Slave,” her first feature film role. The movie also won the award for the Best Adapted Screenplay.

Nyong'o beat fellow nominees Sally Hawkins ("Blue Jasmine"), Jennifer Lawrence ("American Hustle"), Julia Roberts ("August: Osage County") and June Squibb ("Nebraska").

In the Foreign Film category, Italy’s “The Great Beauty” won the best Foreign Language Film Oscar, beating “Omar,” a Palestinian thriller, and three other nominated films from Belgium, Denmark and Cambodia.

Meanwhile, Disney's musical blockbuster "Frozen" won the best animated feature beating "The Croods," "Despicable Me 2," "Ernest & Celestine" and "The Wind Rises" for the prize.
Ellen Degeneres

Oscar winners were not the only ones who made news headlines throughout the awards ceremony. Comedienne Ellen DeGeneres, who hosted the show, broke a Twitter record.

A celebrity-filled 'selfie,' including Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Jared Leto, Meryl Streep, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts and DeGeneres, became the most retweeted item on the social network.

The Oscars selfie was retweeted 2,131,962 times, breaking the record previously held by U.S. President Barack Obama, from his ‘Four more years’ tweet, which was posted November 2012, and received 781,531 retweets.

During the ceremony, Twitter was flooded by live updates from the event, causing the social network some technical stutters.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences acknowledged that the enormous volume of Oscar tweets had something to do with it.

Taking things back to basics, DeGeneres ushered a pizza delivery guy into the hall to distribute slices of pizza to the stars. She then publicly asked top producer Harvey Weinstein to get the bill.
List of winners at the 86th Academy Awards:

Best picture: "12 Years a Slave"

Best actress: Cate Blanchett

Best actor: Matthew McConaughey

Best supporting actor: Jared Leto, "Dallas Buyers Club"

Best animated feature: "Frozen"

Best visual effects: "Gravity"

Best costume design: "The Great Gatsby"

Best make-up and hairstyling: "Dallas Buyers Club"

Best animated short film: "Mr. Hublot"

Best live action short film: "Helium"

Best documentary feature: "20 Feet from Stardom"

Best documentary short: "The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life"

(Al Arabiya with AFP)