And the Oscar goes to…

Well, we made it through another marathon Academy Awards show, and I don’t know about you, but I’m wiped out. And no, sadly, I did not win my Oscar pool. I got the biggest award winners right, but as usual, I bombed the Best Live-Action Short Film and Documentary Short Subject. This year, all of us discovered we’d just picked Gravity to win all the technical awards – so those were the tiebreakers. Still, I hold my head high. I did pretty well overall. Did any of you win your local Oscar pools? Feel free to brag in the comments.

Overall, I thought this year’s Academy Awards show was pretty good. It dragged in spots (as it always does), but for the most part, host Ellen DeGeneres kept things moving at a decent clip. She got plenty of laughs, and only faltered a bit as the show dragged on and she became (clearly) rushed. Here’s a wrap up of some of DeGeneres’ jokes, from her opening monologue and throughout the show. My spouse maintains that Seth MacFarlane did a better job hosting, but I disagree. I get that he was trying to appeal to the young, hip crowd – but to me, he came off as a bit too crude for this particular show. I wouldn’t object to seeing him host the Golden Globes, though.

Now, for the awards themselves: I was thrilled with all of the wins tonight, though let’s be honest – we really didn’t see any major surprises. I think we all knew that the Best Picture winner would be either Gravity or 12 Years a Slave, so when Will Smith (a recent Razzie Award winner) announced 12 Years, we all said “Great, awesome, can we all go to bed now?” But it was a great win for an emotionally gut-wrenching film that I believe, ultimately, will be historically very important.

What were my favorite parts of the evening? Absolutely without question: The acceptance speeches given by Lupita Nyong’o Matthew McConaughey.

Lupita Nyong’o gave a thoughtful, emotional acceptance speech after her Best Supporting Actress Oscar win for 12 Years a Slave. Nyong’o received a standing ovation, and she delivered her speech with grace and poise. My favorite line: "It doesn't escape me for one moment that so much joy in my life is thanks to so much pain in someone else's, and so I want to salute the spirit of Patsey, for her guidance."

As for Matthew McConaughey, I have to say, I actually cheered out loud in my living room when his name was called as the Best Actor Oscar winner for Dallas Buyers Club. I’ve been a fan of McConaughey since I first saw Dazed & Confused umpteen years ago. I’ve watched him languish in romantic comedy hell for I don’t know how long, all the while wondering why he wasn’t getting any grittier roles. I marveled at what everyone now calls the “McConaissance,” loving every second he was on screen in Mud and The Wolf of Wall Street (but particularly Mud), and watching with jaw hanging open through much of Dallas Buyers Club.

McConaughey was rewarded at this year’s Oscars for his remarkable and powerful performance in Dallas Buyers Club, but I suspect many Oscar voters also cast ballots for him based on the whole year’s body of work. They shouldn’t – but you just know they do. Here is his acceptance speech in all it's confusing and interesting glory:

Matthew McConaughey wins oscars 2014 - Acceptance Speech

Alright!

Other favorite Academy Awards moments for me:

Her winning for Best Original Screenplay. I must say that virtually every single one of my writer friends believed Spike Jonze deserved to win for this one. His script was so innovative and creative, and while I have YET to see this movie (it played for like a week here in town), I was glad to see Hollywood recognizing one of its most interesting talents on the big stage. I have no doubt you die hard Her fans were cheering when Jonze hit that stage to claim his golden statue.

Watching the legendary Sidney Poitier walk on stage (with help from Angelina Jolie), and make a teleprompter malfunction seem like dramatic pauses in his delivery. ONLY Poitier could pull that kind of thing off, folks. Seriously. 50 years since Poitier won the Best Actor award for Lilies of the Field, Poitier still has an incredible commanding presence.

And I can’t close this out without mentioning Bill Murray’s brief but touching tribute to Harold Ramis just before announcing the Best Cinematography award: “Oh, we forgot one: Harold Ramis for Caddyshack, Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day.” Nicely done, sir.

Finally, say what you want, but watching Ellen ordering pizzas for all the A-listers in the Oscars audience, and then distribute said pizzas to everyone, was fun too.

What did you guys think about the show, overall? Did your favorites win awards tonight? Did you fall asleep halfway through, only to wake up just in time for the biggest awards of the night?  

Photos courtesy of EW.com and ABCNews.com