With seven Oscars including a history-making best director award for Alfonso Cuaron, the force of Gravity exerted itself at the 86th annual Academy Awards.
Although Steve McQueen's epic slavery drama, 12 Years A Slave, carried off the best picture Oscar, Cuaron's 3D space spectacle won more awards.
Even before the last few statuettes were handed out, the 3D space spectacle was assured to be the most honoured film at the Dolby Theatre ceremony, hosted nimbly by Ellen DeGeneres.
The Mexican Cuaron is the first Latino filmmaker to take best director.
"It was a transformative experience," said Cuaron, who spent some five years making the film and developing its visual effects. "For a lot of people, that transformation was wisdom. For me, it was the colour of my hair."
He thanked his star, Sandra Bullock, the sole person on screen for much of the lost-in-space drama: "Sandra, you are Gravity."
Bullock lost the best actress award to Australia's Cate Blanchett, the star of Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine.
The best actor award was won by Matthew McConaughey for Dallas Buyers Club.
First-time winners Lupita Nyong'o and Jared Leto took supporting acting honours in a smooth if safe Oscar ceremony on Sunday that was punctuated by politics, pizza and photo-bombing.
Wearing a dress of Nairobi blue, the 31-year-old Nyong'o accepted the award for best supporting actress for her role as the tortured slave Patsey in the historical drama 12 Years A Slave.
"It doesn't escape me for one moment that so much joy in my life is thanks to so much pain in someone else's, and so I want to salute the spirit of Patsey for her guidance," said Nyong'o.
DeGeneres' second stint was an amiable, light-footed correction from last year's "We Saw Your Boob"-singing host Seth MacFarlane.
After warmly needling stars in a dance-free opening monologue, DeGeneres circulated freely in the crowd, had pizza delivered, appealed to Harvey Weinstein to pitch in, and gathered stars to snap a selfie she hoped would be a record-setter on Twitter (1.4 million tweets in an hour and still counting).
Jared Leto won best supporting actor for his acclaimed, gaunt performance as a theatrical transgender suffering from AIDS in the Texas drama Dallas Buyers Club. He thanked his mother, his date on the night.
"Thank you for teaching me to dream," said Leto.
Sunday's Oscars hung on a nailbiter of a finish, with the best picture race believed to be between the historical drama 12 Years A Slave, the 3-D space spectacle Gravity and the con-artist comedy American Hustle. DeGeneres alluded to the options in her opening monologue.
"Possibility number one: 12 Years A Slave wins best picture," she said. "Possibility number two: you're all racists."
Possibility number one came true, with 12 Years A Slave carrying off the best picture award. But Cuaron had plenty of consolation, with seven awards including the best director gong.
Though the ceremony lacked a big opening number, it had a steady musical beat to it. To a standing ovation, Bono and U2 performed an acoustic version of Ordinary Love, their Oscar-nominated song from Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom, a tune penned in tribute to the late South African leader Nelson Mandela. Singing his nominated song Happy, from Despicable Me 2, Pharrell Williams had Streep and Leonardo DiCaprio dancing in the aisles.
Pink was cheered for her rendition of Somewhere Over The Rainbow, part of a 75th anniversary tribute to The Wizard of Oz. And Bette Midler sang - what else? - Wind Beneath My Wing for the in memoriam segment - an especially heartfelt one, considering the deaths of Philip Seymour Hoffman, Harold Ramis, James Gandolfini and others.
Best documentary went to the crowd-pleasing back-up singer ode 20 Feet From Stardom.
Disney's global hit Frozen won best animated film, marking - somewhat remarkably - the studio's first win in the 14 years of the best animated feature category. The film's Let It Go won best original song.
Though the Oscar ceremony is usually a glitzy bubble separate from real-world happenings, international events were immediately referenced. In his acceptance speech, Leto addressed people in Ukraine and Venezuela.
"We are here and as you struggle to make your dreams happen, to live the impossible, we're thinking of you," he said.
Russian state-owned broadcaster Channel One Russia said it would not broadcast the Oscars live because of the necessity for news coverage of Russia's invasion of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula. It will instead transmit the Oscars early Tuesday, local time.
Venezuelan protesters, via social media, urged Oscar winners to bring attention to their plight. Anti-government protests have roiled the country in recent weeks.
Italy's The Great Beauty won the Oscar for best foreign language film. In accepting the award for his rumination on life and Rome's decadence, director Paolo Sorrentino thanked his heroes, including Federico Fellini, Martin Scorsese and soccer star Diego Maradona.
There was a sense of deja vu. Just as DeGeneres hit the red carpet, Jennifer Lawrence briefly collapsed in a heap of laughter, just as she tripped ascending the stairs last year to accept best actress for Silver Linings Playbook.
"If you win tonight," said DeGeneres, "I think we should bring you the Oscar."
