The 86th Academy Awards -- Did This Gala Restore My Hope in Award Shows?

"Hopefully the Oscars in March will restore what little hope is left in award show entertainment." This was the last line in my January article about the Grammy's -- I was left a little less than impressed with the music awards show. I won't belabor the points, but if you want a refresher, click the link above. So, with a mixture of excitement and worry, I sat on the couch with my wife and a pizza on Sunday evening and turned on the Oscars -- what I witnessed was astounding. Ellen Degeneres hosted the Oscars this year, after a seven year hiatus from hosting in 2007. I don't recall the 2007 Oscars but I can guarantee I won't forget this one for a long time. Whether you watched the Oscars or not, come along as we relive the events of the 86th Academy Awards.

First things first, whenever a host opens an awards show, the tone must be set quickly. Whether dramatic and somber or funny and light, the tone is vital for the show and must be established within the first ten minutes or so. Ellen opened with a few hilarious one liners with some at the expense of others. She poked fun at June Squibb, Jennifer Lawrence, Amy Adams, and others.  You can watch the whole opening monologue here. So with the tone set, the show was on. Jared Leto won the first Oscar of the night, Best Supporting Actor, for his role in the movie, The Dallas Buyer's Club. Matthew McConaughey won Best Actor in the same movie. Gravity won seven Oscars, including many technical awards -- all told, Gravity took home: Best Director, Cinematography, Editing, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Visual Effects, and Score. And 12 Years a Slave took home Best Picture with Lupita Nyong'o awarded her first Oscar for her role in the same film. And we must not forget the radiant Cate Blanchett winning a much deserved Oscar (her second) for her tumultuous performance in Blue Jasmine. Then Ellen came on again. She continued to pour the jokes on and ran the show the way is was meant to be -- like a party. Ellen shamelessly took "selfies" and ordered pizza for the audience. One selfie she took actually became Twitter's most retweeted picture -- ever. With over 2.8 million -- you read that right -- retweets and an additional 1.4 million more who "favorited" the tweet, Ellen's Oscar Twitter pic officially crashed Twitter. She even announced as much during the show. This one pic blew the previously most retweeted picture, Obama's "4 more years" tweet out of the water by over 2 million retweets. The show continued full throttle the entire night. Idina Menzel wowed us with a performance of "Let it Go," from the movie Frozen. It also won the Oscar for Best Song, beating out frontrunner, "Happy" by Pharrell Williams. In short, the Oscar's overflowed with many things the Grammy's lacked: fun, lightness, ease. It was a celebration and a party -- Ellen and the audience on hand entertained as much on Oscar night as they do on the silver screen. "Hopefully the Oscars in March will restore what little hope is left in award show entertainment." And after watching the Oscar's on Sunday, I'd say Mission Accomplished.   Photos via: Google  

The personal views expressed in this post are the writers’ own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Minnesota Connected or its sponsors.