Gravity isn't science fiction, jeez. Just because a film is set in outer space doesn't make it science fiction, that's like saying Apollo 13 is science fiction.

As the for the Oscars, I thought they rewarded all of 12 Years, Gravity, and Dallas Buyers Club with some fairly prestigious awards. 

I thought Gravity was a good film, but not neccessarily Best Picture without a doubt material. 

I feel like they wanted to keep the movie up in space till the end so the ending was more impactful.

Also, I don't get this sentiment. Gravity's storytelling wasn't as, well, story/epic kind of thing. However, Gravity portrayed the scenes extremely well, as well as Bullock portraying a sense of helplessness and being really frightend by what is going on around her. The film doesn't/shouldn't have to rely on a narrative aspect to be able to win Best Picture. 

For example's sake, Argo did not win in any of the categories for acting. There are other cases of films not winning in this category but still winning the Best Picture Oscar as well.

Argo ... now *that* film was overrated, lol. I barely even remember it now. Both Gravity and 12 Years at least resonate.

Well since the Chinese space station isn't planned to be operational until 2020, I guess it does technically qualify as science fiction.
This is all there is atm.

Oh and the space shuttle had it's last flight in 2011. And Hubble and ISS are no where near eachother, plenty of fiction anyway.

Of the best picture nominations I've seen I enjoyed Gravity the most. But I haven't seen Wolf of Wall Street yet and I'm pretty sure I'll like that better than Gravity.

The Oscars are pretty PC, while I think 12 Years a Slave is a very good movie and deserved the nomination and is a worthy Oscar winner, I don't think the best movie won, and that may be partly due to the subject matter. I think Dallas Buyers Club was about as good as 12 Years a Slave.

OTOH I think Steve McQueen did a better job as director than Alfonso, so I think he was robbed of being the first ever Black person to win a best director Oscar. In some ways it almost seems like the voters decided to split their director and movie nods to give Gravity one award and 12 Years another.

12 years a slave required far better acting. There were only one or two scenes in gravity that required that strong of acting. And I agree that it did say a bit on life and death. 

Urgh....I wouldn't have given it any awards tbh.

Wolf of Wall Street should have won best picture.

In that case Samsara should have at least been nominated, but got brushed of as a documentary.
On a site that values gameplay over graphics, I would assume the same applies to movies. Screenplay over graphics. The screenplay was weak.

I don't agree with Argo either, but it did get an Oscar for best adapted (although untruthful) screenplay.

Apollo 13 is based on actual events so no one would call it science fiction.

Gravity is set slightly in the future, posits a scientific what if (space debris strikes while astronauts are space walking) and is fictional. What am I missing here?