Awards Season - Academy Awards 2014 - Winners

So last night was the 86th Annual Academy Awards Ceremony with Ellen Degeneres hosting and some of the greatest films and stars in living memory going head to head for that little golden statue. My review of the show; one of the best in years and the figures prove that, it was the highest viewed Oscars show in a decade.

I previously stated that I thought Ellen would be hilarious as the host, well was I right or was I right. Unlike last years Seth MacFarlane who was shall we say risqué with the majority of his monologue and jokes throughout last years ceremony, Ellen on the other hand played it safe on the whole but gave the stars and the 43 million people watching at home many memorable stand out moments. For example the 86th Oscars has got to be the first to have pizza delivered to the auditorium and served to the hungry stars; Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt were among many who helped themselves gratefully to a slice served by Ellen and her delivery man.

Ellen managed to break another record last night by achieving the most re-tweeted selfie in Twitter history. Starting with an innocent photo with Meryl turned into a group photo with the world's hottest stars and managed not only to break the Obama's record of 781,759 for his re-election photo but surpassed it in half an hour and crashed Twitter in the process. It now has, with my help 2, 872,451 re-tweets and counting. So overall review of the hosting, fantastic, couldn't have done a better job and actually would not mind at all seeing her back next year.

The In Memorium section of the show was introduced fittingly by an all in black clad Glenn Close and ended with Bette Midler given a wrenching rendition of Wind Beneath My Wings, I was already close to tears before she came on. We really have lost so many great stars and talents this year, it was sad to see so many faces up there. Bill Murray went one step further whilst presenting the cinematography award by mentioning Harold Ramis' work for his films; Caddyshack (1980), Ghostbusters (1984) and Groundhog Day (1993). 

Another highlight for me was the tribute to The Wizard of Oz which is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year and was introduced by Whoopi Goldberg wearing her very own pair of ruby slippers. As one of my own personal inspirations and heroes it was a joy to see Judy Garland's children Liza Minnelli, Lorna Luft and Joey Luft attend the ceremony and get a special mention. Pink gave a moving performance of Somewhere Over the Rainbow as memorable scenes from the 1939 film flashed on the enormous screen behind her. She is no Judy Garland but she showed the beauty of the song in her performance.

Now for the all important awards, there were not many surprises during the night though no doubt many disappointments, American Hustle though leading the nominations with 10 along with Gravity went home with not a single award, as did The Wolf of Wall Street and Nebraska to name but a few deserving films. Gravity was the big winner of the night with a total 7 Oscars including Best Director - Alfonso Cuaron, Best Cinematography and Best Editing.

As I predicted it might 12 Years a Slave did not pick up many of the awards but it got a total of 3 along with Dallas Buyers Club drawing in second place for most awards received. But 12 Years a Slave did win the big one Best Picture, it also won Best Supporting Actress for the very grateful and deserving Lupita Nyong'o, she also gave the best and most emotional speech of the night, adding to the many great speeches that were given during the show.

There was absolutely no surprise when Cate Blanchett won the Best Actress award for Blue Jasmine, personally not sure how I feel about her speech, mostly complimentary with a few head scratchers (an inside joke with Julia Roberts) and possibly a dig at Sandra Bullock, who knows. But on the whole, she was deserving and paid tribute to everyone who helped her on her journey including the Sydney Theatre Company, I particularly liked her statement about women's roles in film and how female driven films are not a niche market, they do make money and people do want to see them, well said Miss Blanchett. Another no-brainer were both Jared Leto winning Best Supporting Actor for Dallas Buyers Club and Matthew McConaughey winning Best Actor again for Dallas. The two men in white suits looked suave and charming and both gave incredibly moving and exceptional performances and Oscar speeches.

Overall the big awards of the night, in fact all awards received, were expected and truly deserved, as were all those films nominated. It has been said countless times during this awards season but this really has been an exceptional year for films. You only had to look at the montages shown at the ceremony and the films nominated and the stars on stage to figure that out. If this is what the film industry can achieve in just one year then I simply cannot wait to see what is on offer to us next year. As always I thoroughly enjoyed the awards season especially the Academy Awards it definitely is my favourite time of year, excepting Christmas of course. I hope you enjoyed it too.

For the full list of winners click in the link below:
Full List of Oscar Winners 2014