The 86th Academy Awards

Last night was the annual Academy Awards, Hollywood's biggest and most prestigious movie awards. And in the ceremony's 86-year history, never has a science-fiction movie received the top honor. Sadly, history wasn't made last night, even though there were two science fiction movies vying for Best Picture, Gravity and Her.

Instead, the top honor went to 12 Years a Slave, Steve McQueen's adaptation of the memoir of the same name. The movie also won Best Adapted Screenplay, and a much-deserved Best Supporting Actress award for Lupita Nyong'o. Cate Blanchett won a Best Actress award for her role in Blue Jasmine. The other acting awards, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor, went out to Dallas Buyers Club costars, Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto respectively.

But the true winner of the evening was the science-fiction masterpiece, Gravity. The movie dominated the awards ceremony with a total of seven wins out of its ten nominations. These included the ceremony's other top honor, Best Director, for Alfonso Cuarón, as well as a slew of technical awards. Other notable winners included Frozen, which won Best Animated Feature and Best Song, and The Great Gatsby, which won the Best Production and Costume Design categories.

As far as losers go, the biggest losers of the evening were American Hustle, which failed to win a single one of its ten nominations, as well as Martin Scorsese's black comedy, The Wolf of Wall Street, which also went home empty-handed. But the Oscars aren't all about winning. It is about getting due recognition, and the fact that they'd been shortlisted as one of the year's finest is an honor by itself.

Still, I have to say that I am quite pleased with the results. The movies that deserved to win won, even though a part of me wishes that Gravity had also taken home the Best Picture award. It was easily the best all-round movie, one of those rare movies that transcend technical boundaries, a true technical marvel. Also, it would have been nice for a science-fiction movie to finally take home Best Picture, but I guess the wait continues.