Well, award season has finally come to a close (until the Tonys in June!) and it definitely ended on a high note. Ellen DeGeneres hosted the 86th Annual Academy Awards on March 2nd and dominated with an opening monologue where she joked about the L.A rain, compared the Oscars to The Hunger Games (…seriously, Jennifer Lawrence won last year), highlighted J. Law’s fall (Tinsel Town’s It girl’s SECOND tumble at the Oscars) earlier that night on the red carpet, and emphasized how pretty Jared Leto is. We also learned that Amy Adams didn’t go to college – when Ellen joked saying the audience had a total of 6 years of college – and celebrated Meryl Streep’s 18 total Oscar nominations by saying that Streep “simply can’t afford to be nominated again”.
Ellen continued her hysterical jokes throughout the night by serving pizza to the hungry audience full of celebs while Brad Pitt handed out plates (After the show the very pregnant Kerry Washington got a full pie!) and taking an epic selfie including Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, and more – and eventually crashing Twitter with its 3.5 million retweets (and counting).
Top performances of the night included Pharrell Williams’ hit song “Happy” – where he danced with Lupita Nyong’o, Meryl Streep, and Amy Adams – Pink’s tribute to The Wizard of Oz with a cover of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”, and Bette Midler’s touching rendition of “Wind Beneath My Wings” to cap off the In Memoriam segment.
Also, we can’t forget a very nervous – yet still phenomenal – performance by Idina Menzel of the hit song “Let It Go” from Disney’s Frozen. Or should we say – Adele Dazeem – as her name was pronounced by presenter John Travolta?
As far as the night’s winners go, Gravity took home the most awards with 7 in total by sweeping all the technical categories – including Alfonso Cuaron’s win for Best Director and a win for Best Score.
As for the major acting awards, Jared Leto won Best Supporting Actor for Dallas Buyer’s Club, Lupita Nyong’o continued to steal America’s heart with her win for Best Supporting Actress for 12 Years a Slave, Cate Blanchett took home Best Actress for her work in Blue Jasmine, and, last but not least, Matthew McCaughnahey nabbing the Best Actor award for his performance in Dallas Buyer’s Club. Sorry Leo!
Other big categories include Best Costume Design for The Great Gatsby, Best Hair and Makeup for Dallas Buyer’s Club, Best Documentary Film going to 20 Feet from Stardom, and Best Animated Feature going to Frozen with Best Original Song going to “Let it Go” – making Robert Lopez officially EGOT status! He can now add Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony winner to his resume.
And finally the night came to a close with award season favorite, 12 Years a Slave, officially receiving the prestigious and predicted title of Best Picture.
Now head to the movies and start making those early year predictions for next year’s Oscars! Because, seriously, when should award season ever really end?