REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, LOS ANGELES - Lupita Nyong'o won the best supporting actress Oscar on Sunday for her first film role ever as the slave, Patsey, in the drama "12 Years a Slave," a big recognition for one of the films favored to win the top honor of the night, the Academy Award for best picture.
Its biggest competitor for best picture, space thriller "Gravity" from Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron, racked up five Oscars for technical achievements like visual effects and cinematography, a reward for its groundbreaking work on conveying space and weightlessness.
Nyong'o's win over Jennifer Lawrence for her role as a loopy housewife in "American Hustle" injected some drama halfway through the 86th Academy Awards, after early Oscars went to heavy favorites.
Jared Leto won best supporting actor for his role as a transgender woman in "Dallas Buyers Club" and the tale of Nordic princesses, "Frozen," won best animated film, a first for Disney Animation Studios since the category was introduced in 2002.
Comedian and talk show star Ellen DeGeneres returned as Oscar host on Sunday in an appearance many saw as calculated to project a lighter, more affable tone for Hollywood's biggest night after the provocative performance of her immediate predecessor, Seth MacFarlane.
She mixed with the star-studded crowd, taking selfies with the likes of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, and showed in her opening monologue she was not above poking fun at some of the film industry's biggest names.
Leto, who returned to acting from a six-year break in the low budget AIDS drama, "Dallas Buyers Club," injected a serious note into the show in his acceptance speech, paying tribute to all those who have died from the worldwide HIV epidemic.
"This is for the 36 million people out there who have lost the battle to AIDS," Leto said.
Leto also brought international political unrest into the Dolby Theatre by voicing his support for protesters battling their governments in Ukraine and Venezuela.
In accepting the first award of the night for "12 Years a Slave," Nyong'o, 31, paid homage to her character, a hardworking slave who suffers great abuse in the story based on the memoir of free man turned slave Solomon Northup.
"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, and so I want to salute the spirit of Patsey, for her guidance," a tearful Nyong'o told the audience.
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