Oscars 2014: Best and Worst Moments and List of Winners

Highlights of the Oscar award show:

Ellen DeGeneres was a great host, funny and irreverent but respectful of the event and the fans.  The photo that brought down Twitter was a hoot.  But the pizza thing was not so great.

The incomparable Darlene Love lifted her voice and our spirits by singing her acceptance speech when 20 Feet from Stardom won Best Documentary.

Pharrell Williams sang “Happy” and got the stars in the front row to do what all of us at home wanted to do — get up and dance with him.  

Jared Leto, best supporting actor winner for “Dallas Buyer’s Club,” made up for rambling and clumsy responses to some of the other awards with a heartfelt tribute to his mother, to the people with AIDS whose struggle was portrayed in his film, and to others struggling around the world.

Lupita Nyong’o’s elegance and beauty was exceeded only by her graciousness and eloquence in giving the night’s most moving acceptance speech. “No matter where you’re from, your dreams are valid.”

Two marvelous commercials:

The Muppets appeared for Lipton tea with an improbable tribute to “Midnight Cowboy” — and reminded us that their new movie is opening this month.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_LJVfKN2iI

Pepsi Mini had a better tribute to the magic of movies than the Oscar broadcast’s clip reels.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCXr7ECpGQg

The tribute to the Wizard of Oz on its 75th anniversary included all three of Judy Garland’s children, Pink singing “Over the Rainbow” in a beautiful dress that recalled the ruby slippers, and Ellen appeared in Glinda’s gown.

The youngest ever achiever of that most elusive of goals was Robert Lopez, who shared the Oscar for Best Song with his wife, Kristen Anderson-Lopez, for “Frozen’s” “Let It Go,” and now has the honor of the EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony).  Their rhyming acceptance speech was charming and touching.

The Academy finally did the right thing with the In Memoriam tribute to those we lost over the  past year, silencing the audio so there were no distracting bursts of applause.

Winners got time to say what they wanted to say without being interrupted by the orchestra.  Much more civilized.

Low points:

That blanket of roses motif on the stage was distracting.

The “Hero” theme was poorly handled.  I am as big a fan of movie clip reels as anyone but these were contextless and not very dynamic.

Did Whoopi borrow the Julia Roberts dress from the Golden Globes that everyone hated?

John Travolta weirdly mangled Idina Menzel’s name — twice.

And the Oscars went to….

Best picture

WINNER: 12 Years a Slave

Nominees: American Hustle; Captain Phillips; Dallas Buyers Club; Gravity; Her; Nebraska; Philomena;The Wolf of Wall Street; 12 Years a Slave

Best actor

WINNER: Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club

Nominees: Christian Bale, American Hustle; Bruce Dern, Nebraska; Leonardo DiCaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street; Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club;Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave

Best actress

WINNER: Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine

Nominees: Amy Adams, American Hustle; Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine; Sandra Bullock, Gravity; Judi Dench, Philomena; Meryl Streep, August: Osage County

Best supporting actor

WINNER: Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club

Nominees: Barkhad Abdi, Captain Phillips; Bradley Cooper, American Hustle; Michael Fassbender, 12 Years a Slave; Jonah Hill, The Wolf of Wall Street; Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club

Best supporting actress

WINNER: Lupita Nyong’o, 12 Years a Slave

Nominees: Sally Hawkins, Blue Jasmine; Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle; Lupita Nyong’o, 12 Years a Slave; Julia Roberts, August: Osage County; June Squibb,Nebraska

Best director

WINNER: Alfonso Cuarón, Gravity

Nominees: Alfonso Cuarón, Gravity; Steve McQueen, 12 Years a Slave; Alexander Payne, Nebraska; David O. Russell, American Hustle; Martin Scorsese, The Wolf of Wall Street

Best animated feature film

WINNER: Frozen

Nominees: The Croods; Despicable Me 2; Ernest & Celestine; Frozen; The Wind Rises

Best foreign film

WINNER: The Great Beauty

Nominees: The Broken Circle Breakdown, Belgium; The Great Beauty, Italy; The Hunt, Denmark; The Missing Picture, Cambodia; Omar, Palestine

Best original screenplay

WINNER: Her, Spike Jonze

Nominees: American Hustle, Eric Singer and David O. Russell; Blue Jasmine, Woody Allen; Dallas Buyers Club, Craig Borten and Melisa Wallack; Her, Spike Jonze;Nebraska, Bob Nelson

Best adapted screenplay

WINNER: 12 Years a Slave, John Ridley

Nominees: Before Midnight, Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke; Captain Phillips, Billy Ray; Philomena, Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope; 12 Years a Slave, John Ridley; The Wolf of Wall Street, Terence Winter

Best original score

WINNER: Gravity

Nominees: The Book Thief; Gravity; Her; Philomena; Saving Mr. Banks

Best original song

WINNER: Let It Go, from Frozen

Nominees: Alone Yet Not Alone, from Alone Yet Not Alone; Happy, from Despicable Me 2; Let It Go, from Frozen; The Moon Song, from Her; Ordinary Love, fromMandela: Long Walk to Freedom

Best cinematography

WINNER: Gravity

Nominees: The Grandmaster; Gravity; Inside Llewyn Davis; Nebraska; Prisoners

Best costume design

WINNER: The Great Gatsby

Nominees: American Hustle; The Grandmaster; The Great Gatsby; The Invisible Woman; 12 Years a Slave

Best documentary feature

WINNER: 20 Feet From Stardom

Nominees: The Act of Killing; Cutie and the Boxer; Dirty Wars; The Square; 20 Feet From Stardom

Best documentary short subject

WINNER: The Lady in Number 6

Nominees: CaveDigger; Facing Fear; Karama Has No Walls; The Lady in Number 6;Music Saved My Life; Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall

Best film editing

WINNER: Gravity

Nominees: American Hustle; Captain Phillips; Dallas Buyers Club; Gravity; 12 Years a Slave

Best makeup and hairstyling

WINNER: Dallas Buyers Club

Nominees: Dallas Buyers Club; Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa; The Lone Ranger

Best production design

WINNER: The Great Gatsby

Nominees: American Hustle; Gravity; The Great Gatsby; Her; 12 Years a Slave

Best animated short film

WINNER: Mr. Hublot

Nominees: Feral; Get a Horse!; Mr. Hublot; Possessions; Room on the Broom

Best live-action short film

WINNER: Helium

Nominees: Aquel No Era Yo (That Wasn’t Me); Avant Que De Tout Perdre (Just Before Losing Everything); Helium; Pitaako Mun Kaikki Hoitaa? (Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?); The Voorman Problem

Best sound editing

WINNER: Gravity

Nominees: All Is Lost; Captain Phillips; Gravity; The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug; Lone Survivor

Best sound mixing

WINNER: Gravity

Nominees: Captain Phillips; Gravity; The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug; Inside Llewyn Davis; Lone Survivor

Best visual effects

WINNER: Gravity

Nominees: Gravity; The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug; Iron Man 3; The Lone Ranger; Star Trek Into Darkness