DHAKA: Historical drama 12 Years a Slave has won best picture at the 86th Academy Awards, while space drama Gravity won the lion`s share of awards.

Gravity`s Alfonso Cuaron became the first Latino to win the best director award, adding to the film`s six Oscars for technical achievement, BBC reported.

Cate Blanchett was named best actress for her portrayal of the heroine in Woody Allen`s Blue Jasmine.

Matthew McConaughey won the best actor Oscar for Dallas Buyers Club.

Steve McQueen, the British director of 12 Years a Slave, dedicated the best film Oscar to "all those people who have endured slavery".

"Everyone deserves not just to survive, but to live," he said.

Based on a true story, it follows the life of Solomon Northup, a free black man in New York kidnapped and sold into slavery in Louisiana.

Producer Brad Pitt praised McQueen - an artist turned director whose previous films include Hunger and Shame - for "bringing them altogether" to tell Northup`s story.

Cuaron praised the "transformative" power of film and singled out the film`s star Sandra Bullock as "the soul, the heart of Gravity".

The film - which took five years to complete, and owes much to the technical prowess of British visual effects specialists - also won Oscars for film editing, sound mixing, sound editing, cinematography, visual effects and score.

BDST: 1154 HRS, MAR 03, 2014