6. Gravity & 12 Years A Slave Split Director & Picture Awards
One of the more predictable award wins of the night was Alfonso Cuaron scooping the Best Director Oscar, making it the second year in a row that the Director/Picture awards were split, with a director of a technically mind-boggling movie (last year, it was Ang Lee for Life of Pi) taking Director, while a more typically Oscar-courting movie won Best Picture (last year, it was Argo). This year, Cuaron gave a heartfelt speech for a well-deserved win, giving enormous credit to his leading lady, Sandra Bullock. Though this Best Picture race was arguably one of the most competitive ever, given Gravity and 12 Years A Slave had the first-ever tie in the history of the PGA Awards (which is a huge predictor of the Best Picture Oscar), the smart money was still on the more Oscar-friendly 12 Years A Slave to win, and that it certainly did. This seemed like a fair compromise for fans of both movies: Gravity got a great honour and won more than double the number of Oscars that any other movie did, but 12 Years took home the biggest honour of the night.