LOS ANGELES: Harrowing historical drama “12 Years a Slave” won the coveted best picture Oscar on Sunday, while 3D space thriller “Gravity” was the top prize winner at a politically tinged Academy Awards with seven.

True-life AIDS activist drama “Dallas Buyers Club” won three Oscars, including best actor for Matthew McConaughey, while Australia’s Cate Blanchett won best actress for Woody Allen’s “Blue Jasmine”.

But 1970s crime caper “American Hustle” and Martin Scorsese’s “The Wolf of Wall Street” went home empty-handed from the Oscars.

“12 Years a Slave” won three Oscars overall: best picture, best adapted screenplay and best supporting actress for Kenya’s Lupita Nyong’o for her searing turn as a brutalised slave.

Mexican Alfonso Cuaron won best director for “Gravity”, the first Latin American to win the award.—AFP