From start to finish the 86th Academy Awards was a phenomenal spectacle to be seen. The night started with Ellen DeGeneres’ opening monologue that had everyone in the building chuckling; she also kept everyone happy with her witty humor that included ordering a pizza and distributing it to some of Hollywood’s elite. DeGeneres then crashed Twitter by taking what may be the best selfie of all time which has over 2 million retweets already. The picture includes Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Bradley Cooper, and a pretty sweet photobomb from Kevin Spacey among other celebrities. The awards started with Best Supporting Actor going to Jarod Leto for his groundbreaking performance in Dallas Buyers Club, no surprises on this win. The rest of the night was predominately controlled by Gravity winning 7 Oscars. Gravity definitely deserved their share of Oscars tonight especially with winning best Original Score. However the win for Best Director surprised especially with such amazing competition with Steve McQueen for 12 Years a Slave and the legendary Martin Scorsese with Wolf of Wall Street. 12 Years a Slave had the last laugh with winning Best Motion Picture which actually made McQueen jump up on stage in pure excitement after his acceptance speech. Wolf of Wall Street did not have a great night; going home empty handed after being nominated for 5 Oscars including leaving Leonardo DiCaprio without an award for the fifth time. The Oscar snub of Wall of Wall Street certainly surprised people after Scorsese created a 180-minute movie of pure excitement. The biggest snub however has to go to American Hustle; after being nominated for a ludicrous 10 Academy Awards they too went home without an award. Shocking especially after such amazing performances by the star-studded cast which included some of the best young actors and actresses in Hollywood. One man that certainly is happy tonight is Spike Jonze after winning Best Writing for an Original Screenplay. This script was one that many people mocked the idea of but in reality it is a revolutionary idea for a script especially with the growth of technology. As for the leading roles the winners included Cate Blanchett winning her second Oscar for her outstanding performance in Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine. Meryl Street got the snub but however I think she may get over it; seeing it was her 18th career Oscar nomination which is the most ever. Matthew McConaughey certainly was well deserving of his Oscar for his jaw dropping acting performance for Dallas Buyers Club. The best moment of the night however goes to Lupita Nyong’o who won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for 12 Years a Slave. Lupita who had never been in a motion picture before this production lit up to room with her smile and touched all the hearts of everyone watching when she was presented the award. The pure joy and emotion Lupita helped show everyone why we have these awards and what it means to some people. In a profession that is extremely hardworking and can be an emotional roller coaster ride, Lupita showed us that when it all comes together it is beautiful and can bring tears to your eyes.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Lasell chapter.