The Superbowl of award shows, the Academy Awards, was record breaking, literally.
The telecast gave birth to the most retweeted all-star selfie in Twitter’s history, breaking the website. Aside from the group picture, the show also had John Travolta creating his own new Broadway singer “Adele Dazeem” and Steve McQueen jumping high enough to almost break the ceiling.
Ellen DeGeneres returned as host for this year’s show, beginning with a monologue that poked fun at Jennifer Lawrence’s trip while accepting her award for supporting actress last year and tripping again before the show. She also commented on Jonah Hills, um, “supporting character” in “Wolf Of Wall Street,” something she hadn’t seen in years.
The first award handed out was supporting actor, which went to Jared Leto for his portrayal of an HIV positive transgender in “Dallas Buyers Club.” Throughout the award season, he’s been no stranger to giving heartfelt speeches, something he continued to do by telling the story of his mother, a high school dropout and single mother who still encouraged her kids to be creative. Leto acknowledged those in Ukraine and Venezuela, who are struggling to make their dreams happen and live the impossible, who they were thinking of.
Beating Leto’s speech was supporting actress winner Lupita Nyong’o, who thanked the “12 Years a Slave” director Steve McQueen and the spirit of Solomon for telling his story and her character Patsey’s.
“When I look down at this Golden Statue, may it remind me and every little child that no matter where you’re from, your dreams are valid,” said Nyong’o.
The first performance of the three-hour long show was Pharrell’s “Happy” from “Despicable Me 2.” The song made the audience happy enough that Meryl Streep and Leonardo DiCaprio were seen dancing in the aisles. Other performances included U2’s “Ordinary Love” from “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom” that received a standing ovation, and Pink’s rendition of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” part of a 75th anniversary tribute to “The Wizard of Oz.”
Alfonso Cuaron’s “Gravity” picked up awards for editing, sound mixing, visual effects, original score, and a directing honor for Cuaron. The astronaut thriller was beat out for best picture by “12 Years a Slave,” whose director Steve McQueen becomes the first black director of a best picture winner.
In the only slight upset in the show, Spike Jonze took the award for best original screenplay for his tale of digital romance in a far away future. The award was expected to land in David O. Russell’s hands and left his “American Hustle” empty handed.
The Oscar for best animated feature went to Disney’s “Frozen,” a movie less reliant on girl-meets-boy and more on sister relationships. The movie’s song “Let It Go” also won for best original song after Idina Menzel, or Adele Dazeem if you’re John Travolta, performed the tune earlier. Best animated short went to “Mr. Hublot,” a story of a mechanical man and his robotic dog.
In the documentary field “20 Feet from Stardom” won for best feature by chronicling the back-up singers from music history, including Darlene Love, who sang her gratitude with “His Eye Is on the Sparrow.” Best documentary short went to “The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life,” focused on 110 year-old Holocaust survivor Alice Herz-Somner, who passed away last week.
Cate Blancett snagged the honor of best actress for her performance as a Wall Street woman forced to move in with her sister and pull herself together in Woody Allen’s “Blue Jasmine.” Matthew McConaughey won best actor after portraying Ron Woodroof, an HIV-infected Texan suppling an un-approved drug in “Dallas Buyers Club.” McConaughey, who’s career in the past few years has revolved around romantic comedies, thanked God and his family before ending with “All right, all right, all right.”
The biggest moment of the night was the Pizza guy, now known to be Edgar Matrirosyan, who delivered pies to the likes of Brad Pitt and Martin Scorsese. After the Oscars, Matrirosyan appeared on “The Ellen Degeneres Show” and received the money that Degeneres had collected from the star-studded audience using Pharrell Williams Smokey and the Bear hat and an additional thousand dollars.
This year’s Oscars started out slow, with even Amy Adams being caught checking her phone, but picked up pace with touching speeches, Ellen sporting Glinda the Good Witch’s dress, and McConaughey’s redemption.
