This year’s Oscars ceremony, hosted by Ellen DeGeneres, was watched by 43 million TV viewers in the US.

According to broadcaster ABC, it was the biggest audience for the Academy Awards in a decade.

The audience was 6.4% bigger than last year when the event was fronted by Seth McFarlane, according to ratings figures from Nielsen.

The most recent biggest TV audience was 43.6 million in 2004, when The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King cleaned up.

The most watched Oscars ceremony on television came in 1998, when the triumph of Titanic with 11 Academy awards was seen by 55.3 million viewers.

This year’s Oscars ceremony, hosted by Ellen DeGeneres, was watched by 43 million TV viewers in the US

Last year’s choice of irreverent host Seth McFarlane drew criticism from some quarters. Ellen DeGeneres – hosting the event for the second time – was seen as a safer pair of hands.

Ellen DeGeneres received mixed reviews for this year’s ceremony, but her tenure was seen as a step away from recent attempts to draw in younger audiences.

Despite this, data from ratings trackers Nielsen suggested that there was an increase of 1% in the 18 to 34-year-old audience bracket.

Regardless of the critics’ views, Ellen DeGeneres’ staged a “selfie” photograph with several of the stars in the audience which was a hit on social media, setting the record for the most re-tweets on Twitter – more than two million.

Ellen Degeneres declared she wanted to break the record for the most re-tweeted photograph in history, featuring herself surrounded by the front row talent – and best supporting actress winner Lupita Nyong’o’s brother.

She broke the record within the hour, and in doing so, broke Twitter’s servers too.

Twitter said that 14.7 million Oscar-related tweets were sent worldwide during the telecast.

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12 Years a Slave has won best picture award at this year’s Oscars ceremony.

However, space drama Gravity won the lion’s share of awards the 86th Academy 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.

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.

It is the second consecutive year the best director and best picture prize have been awarded to different films.

Alfonso Cuaron praised the “transformative” power of film and singled out the film’s star Sandra Bullock as “the soul, the heart of Gravity”.

Gravity – 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 original score.

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

Based on a true story, it follows the life of a free black man – Northup – who is kidnapped and sold into slavery in Louisiana.

Newcomer Lupita Nyong’o won the best supporting actress award for her film debut as slave worker Patsey.

The Kenyan actress paid tribute to her character and thanked her for her “guidance”.

The film won a third Oscar for John Ridley’s adapted screenplay.

Spike Jonze collected the best original screenplay for Her. His first film as sole writer and director stars Joaquin Phoenix as a man who falls in love with a computer operating system, voiced by Scarlett Johansson.

12 Years a Slave has won best picture award at this year’s Oscars ceremony

As predicted, Matthew McConaughey took the best actor prize for his role as real life rodeo cowboy Ron Woodroof, who smuggled HIV drugs into the US.

Matthew McConaughey, formerly a rom-com regular whose roles centred on his good looks, lost 50 lbs to play Ron Woodroof in the low budget indie drama.

Best actress winner Cate Blanchett paid tribute to her rivals, including Judi Dench – who was not at the ceremony – acknowledging “the random and subjective” nature of awards ceremonies.

Matthew McConaughey’s co-star Jared Leto won the first Oscar of the night, picking up best supporting actor for his role as transgender woman who becomes Ron Woodruff’s business partner and unlikely friend.

In an emotional speech Jared Leto thanked his mother, who accompanied him to the awards, “for teaching me to dream” and dedicated his award to “those who have ever felt injustice because of who they are, or who you love”.

Dallas Buyers Club also picked up a third award for make-up and hairstyling – with the transformation of Jared Leto and his co-star, Matthew McConaughey, rumored to have been achieved on a budget of $250.

Frozen, which recently tipped $1 billion at the global box office, scored two Oscars.

The 3D film about an icy princess and her sister was named best animated feature film, with its song, Let It Go – performed by star Idina Menzel – winning best original song. It is loosely based on The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen.

The Great Gatsby also picked up two Oscars, for costume design and production design. The awards were picked up by Baz Luhrmann’s partner Catherine Martin.

But there were no awards for David O. Russell’s American Hustle, which had 10 nominations, including nods in all the acting categories. Nor were there any awards for Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street.

The first British win of the night came for Tim Webber and his team from London-based company Framestore for their visual effects work on Gravity.

Tim Webber paid tribute to his team, Gravity actors George Clooney and Sandra Bullock and director Alfonso Cuaron “for having the vision to create this breath-taking film and the audacity to make it happen”.

The second British win of the night went to director Malcolm Clarke, who won an Oscar for his documentary short The Lady in Number Six: Music Saved My Life.

The film follows Alice Herz-Sommer, the oldest known survivor of the Nazi Holocaust and an accomplished pianist. Paying tribute to Alice Herz-Sommer, who died last week at the age of 110, he praised “her extraordinary capacity for joy and amazing capacity for forgiveness”.

Ellen DeGeneres hosted the ceremony, for the second time, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

Academy Awards – main winners:

Gravity – 7 awards

12 Years a Slave – 3 awards

Dallas Buyers Club – 3 awards

Frozen – 2 awards

The Great Gatsby – 2 awards

Blue Jasmine – 1 award

Her – 1 award

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The 86th Academy Awards air Sunday, March 2 at 8:30 p.m. on ABC.

Ellen DeGeneres hosts the Academy Awards ceremony for a second time.

Ellen DeGeneres hosts the Academy Awards ceremony for a second time

She first helmed the show back in 2007 when The Departed won Best Picture.

Ellen DeGeneres is also the anti-Seth MacFarlane, who made a lot of people mad with his frat boy humor when he hosted last year.

American Hustle and Gravity are tied for the most nominations with 10 each, while 12 Years a Slave has nine nods.

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