A Night of the Oscars – A Recap of The 86th Annual Academy Awards Ceremony

Bryan Curtiss, Writer

The 86th Annual Academy Awards were held last night at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.  The night belonged to “12 Years a Slave”, which won three Oscars, including Best Picture.  The film with the most awards was “Gravity”, which won six, including Best Director.  This is a recap of what happened while I was watching the ceremony on ABC.


8:30PM – The Ceremony has begun here on the East Coast.  Let a night of fun begin!
 “It has been a tough couple of days for us here.  It has been raining.  We made it.  Thank you for your prayers.” – Ellen DeGeneres

8:31PM – “I was telling you that you were wonderful in ‘Nebraska’” – Ellen DeGeneres to June Squibb, whom at 84 years young, is the oldest nominee this year.

8:32PM – “He is a Sommelier, which means he knows about wine.” (Ellen on Barkhad Abdi)  I don’t know about this one.  A little bit edgy.

8:34PM – “The nominees here made over 1400 films, and had a total of six years of college.”

8:35PM – “One of the nominees is ‘Her’, and by ‘Her’, I mean Meryl Streep.”

8:38PM – “Speaking of sex and the rodeos, Bruce Dern is here tonight.”

8:39PM – “Possibility # 1, ‘12 Years a Slave’ wins Best Picture.  Possibility # 2, you are all racists.”

8:40PM – Last year’s Supporting Actress winner Anne Hathaway presents the Best Supporting Actor Oscar, the first award of the night.

8:42PM – Jared Leto wins the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as a transgender AIDS patient in “Dallas Buyers Club.”

8:43PM – Leto acknowledges his mother in his acceptance speech.

8:44PM – “We are here, and as you struggle to make your dreams happen, and to live the impossible, we are thinking of you tonight.” – Leto, who acknowledges those struggling in places like Ukraine and Venezuela

8:45PM – Leto dedicates his Oscar to the 36 million people who died of AIDS.

8:48PM – Jim Carrey is on the stage, presenting a tribute to the Animated Heroes of film.

8:50PM – Kerry Washington presents the first Original Song nominee, Pharrell.

8:52PM – Grammy-winning artist Pharrell performs his hit song “Happy” (and yes, he is wearing THAT HAT).  “Happy” is a great feel-good song.

8:53PM – We have hit our first commercial break.

8:56PM – Samuel L. Jackson and Naomi Watts present the Oscar for Costume Design.

8:58PM – Catherine Martin wins the Academy Award for Costume Design for “The Great Gatsby”.

8:59PM – “I have a few words that I have tucked in my bra.  It’s a very Australian thing to do.” – Martin (accepting her Oscar)

8:59PM – Jackson and Watts also present the Makeup and Hairstyling Oscar.

9:00PM – Adruitha Lee and Robin Mathews win the Academy Award for Makeup and Hairstyling for “Dallas Buyers Club”.

9:02PM – Harrison Ford introduces the first three Best Picture nominees, “American Hustle”, “Dallas Buyers Club”, and “The Wolf of Wall Street”.

9:06PM – Channing Tatum introduces the six college students who won the 2014 “Team Oscar” contest (where college students submit a 60-second video with their hopes and dreams for the future of film).

9:06PM – More commercials start right now.

9:11PM – Kim Novak and Matthew McConaughey present the Oscar for Best Animated Short Feature.

9:13PM – “Mr. Hublot” wins the Academy Award for Best Animated Short (sorry Mickey Mouse fans) for Frenchmen Laurent Witz and Alexandre Espigares.

9:14PM – Novak and McConaughey also present the Oscar for Animated Feature.

9:15PM – “Frozen” wins the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

9:17PM – Sally Field introduces a clip to the “Ordinary, Extraordinary Heroes” of Motion Pictures.

9:20PM – Emma Watson and Joseph Gordon-Levitt present the Oscar fore Visual Effects.

9:21PM – The Visual Effects team from “Gravity” wins the Academy Award for Visual Effects.

9:23PM – Zac Efron introduces the second Original Song nominee, “The Moon Song” from “Her”, performed by Karen O.

9:25PM – “The Moon Song” from “Her”.

9:26PM – It is time for another commercial break right now.

9:30PM – Kate Hudson and Jason Sudeikis present the Oscar for Live Action Short Film.

9:31PM – “Helium” wins the Academy Award for Live Action Short Film.

9:33PM – Sudeikis and Hudson also present the Documentary Short Subject Oscar.

9:34PM – “The Lady In Number 6 – Music Saved My Life” wins the Documentary Short Subject Academy Award.

9:36PM – Bradley Cooper presents the Oscar for Documentary Feature.

9:37PM – “20 Feet from Stardom” wins the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

9:40PM – “I sing because it’s nice to be out of Washington.” – Kevin Spacey (in character as Frank Underwood)

9:41PM – Spacey acknowledges the Governor’s Award winners (Angela Lansbury, Steve Martin, and costume designer Piero Tosi), and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award winner (Angelina Jolie).

9:44PM – Commercial Break

9:48PM – Ewan McGregor and Viola Davis present the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

9:50PM – “The Great Beauty” wins the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, winning Italy’s first Foreign Language Film Oscar in 15 years.

9:51PM – Last night’s Worst Actress Razzie winner, Tyler Perry presents the second trio of Oscar nominees for Best Picture, “Nebraska”, “Her”, and “Gravity”.

9:54PM – (Best Picture nominee tonight) Brad Pitt introduces “No Ordinary Love” and the Irish rock band U2.

9:55PM – U2 performs their Golden Globe winning song “No Ordinary Love” from “Mandela: A Long Walk to Freedom”.

9:58PM – Commercial Break

10:03PM – Ellen tries to get a selfie with a nominee, wacky hijinks ensue.

10:04PM – Michael B. Jordan and Kristen Bell present the highlights from the Scientific and Technical Awards, which Jordan and Bell co-hosted on February 15.

10:06PM – Charlize Theron and Chris Hemsworth are presenting the next two Categories – Sound Editing (after this category), and up first is Sound Mixing.

10:07PM – The Sound Mixing team from “Gravity” wins the Academy Award for Achievement in Sound Mixing.

10:08PM – Sound Editing (also presented by Theron & Hemsworth) is being presented.

10:09PM – Sound Editor Glenn Freemantle wins the Academy Award for “Gravity”.

10:11PM – Last year’s Supporting Actor winner, Christoph Waltz presents the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.  Who will win?  Team J-Law or Team Nyong’o?

10:14PM – Kenyan native Lupita Nyong’o wins the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Patsy in “12 Years a Slave”.

10:17PM – Commercial Break is up next.  Must write filler for tomorrow night’s show…

10:22PM – Ellen DeGeneres is passing out pizza with the pizza delivery guy.

10:24PM – Cheryl Boone-Isaacs, the first African-American female Motion Picture Academy President is speaking now on the Oscar stage.

10:25PM – Boone-Isaacs introduces a new museum being built in Los Angeles that will open in 2017.

10:25PM – “Good luck following that, Amy Adams and Bill Murray”. – Ellen

10:26PM – “Baby, you look like 146 domestic.”

10:26PM – Amy Adams and Bill Murray are presenting the Oscar for Best Cinematography.

10:27PM – Murray acknowledges the recently departed Harold Ramis.

10:28PM – Gravity wins the Academy Award for Best Cinematography for cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki.

10:30PM – Anna Kendrick and Gabourey Sidibe present the Academy Award for Editing (in a Motion Picture).

10:30PM – Alfonso Cuarón and Mark Sanger win the Academy Award for Editing in a Motion Picture for “Gravity”.

10:32PM – Whoopi Goldberg introduces the 75th Anniversary Tribute segment of “The Wizard of Oz”.

10:33PM – Judy Garland’s three children, Liza Minnelli, Joey Luft, and Lorna Luft take a bow from their seats.

10:35PM – Singer Pink sings “Over the Rainbow” from “The Wizard of Oz”, which won Best Original Song at 1940’s Oscar Ceremony.

10:38PM – Commercial Break is On!

10:42PM – Ellen is dressed in a fairytale princess gown (Kate McKinnon’s SNL parody sketch rings true).

10:43PM – Jennifer Garner and Benedict Cumberbatch presents the Academy Award for Production Design (formerly Art Direction/Set Design).

10:44PM – Catherine Martin wins her second Oscar of the night, for Production Design for “The Great Gatsby”, while Set Designer Beverley Dunn wins for Set Design for “Gatsby”.

10:46PM – Chris Evans introduces another “Oscar Heroes” segment.

10:48PM – We’ve reached another Commercial Break, which starts with a Pepsi commercial with a plethora of movie quotes/catchphrases.

10:52PM – Glenn Close leads a tribute to those who left us in the last year.

10:55PM – In Memoriam: James Gandolfini, Karen Black, Tom Laughlin, Ruth Prawler Jhabvala (screenwriter), Carmen Zapata, Hal Needham, Richard Shepherd, Stuart Freeborn, Gerry Hambling (editor), Jim Kelly (actor), Stephenie McMillan (set decorator), Les Blank (documentarian), Eileen Brennan, Paul Walker, Fay Kanin (screenwriter, former Academy President), Charles L. Campbell (Sound Editor), Deanna Durbin, Frederic Back (animator), AC Lyles, Elmore Leonard, Annette Funicello, Petro Vlahos (sound engineer), Eduardo Coutinho, Saul Zaentz (producer), Riz Ortolani, Peter O’Tyoole, Ray Harryhausen, Brian Ackland-Snow (set decorator), Richard Griffiths, Sid Caesar, Roger Ebert, Shirley Temple Black, Joan Fontaine, Run Run Shaw, Juanita Moore, Mickey Moore (2nd Unit Director), Stefan Kudelski, Harold Ramis, Eleanor Parker, Ray Dolby (Engineer), Julie Harris, Max Schell, Richard Matheson (screenwriter), Gilbert Taylor (cinematographer), Tom Sherak (former Academy President), Esther Williams, and Philip Seymour Hoffman are among those we lost in the past year.

10:58PM – Bette Midler performs “The Wind Beneath My Wings”.

11:01PM – Commercial Break

11:04PM – “We just crashed Twitter”. – Ellen DeGeneres (on the Selfie)

11:05PM – Goldie Hawn introduces the final three nominees for Best Picture: “Philomena”, “Captain Phillips”, and “12 Years a Slave”.

11:08PM – John Travolta introduces the fourth and final Best Original Song nominee, “Let It Go” from this year’s Animated Feature winner, “Frozen”.

11:09PM – The lovely actress/singer of stage and screen, Idina Menzel performs the fourth and final Best Original Song nominee, “Let It Go” from this year’s Animated Feature winner, “Frozen”.

11:13PM – Jamie Foxx and Jessica Biel present the Oscars for Best Original Score and Best Original Song.  Up first, Best Original Score.

11:14PM – Steven Price wins the Academy Award for Best Original Score for the movie “Gravity”.

11:16PM – Foxx and Biel recap the Original Song nominees.

11:17PM – “Let It Go” wins the Academy Award for Best Original Song for husband-and-wife Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez.  Robert is now the latest EGOT winner.

11:18PM – Commercial Break

11:22PM – “I just borrowed Pharrell’s hat, and I figured that I would collect money for the pizza.” – Ellen

11:23PM – Robert DeNiro and Penelope Cruz present the Oscars for Screenplay.  Up first, Best Adapted Screenplay.

11:25PM – John Ridley wins the Academy Award for Adapted Screenplay for “12 Years a Slave” (based on the true story of Solomon Northup).  Ridley is the second black screenwriter to win this Oscar (and in the last five years).

11:26PM – Cruz and DeNiro also present the Original Screenplay category.

11:27PM – Spike Jonze wins the Academy Award for Original Screenplay for the film “Her”.

11:28PM – Commercial Break; Only 4 categories left

11:33PM – Angelina Jolie and Sidney Poitier are presenting the Academy Award for Best Director.  Poitier receives a standing ovation, for the 50th Anniversary of his historic Oscar win (as the first Black actor to win for Best Actor).

11:35PM – Alfonso Cuarón wins the Academy Award for Best Director for “Gravity”.

11:38PM – Commercial Break.  Only three categories left – Actor, Actress, and Picture.

11:41PM – Defending Best Actor champion Daniel Day-Lewis is on stage to present the Best Actress Oscar.

11:44PM – Cate Blanchett wins the Academy Award for Best Actress for the Woody Allen film “Blue Jasmine”.

11:48PM – “And here is America’s other sweetheart, Academy Award winner Jennifer Lawrence.” – Ellen

11:48PM – “Why are you laughing?  What’s so funny?” - Lawrence

11:48PM – Last year’s Best Actress winner (and America’s favorite bestie) Jennifer (don’t call me “J-Law”) Lawrence presents the penultimate category of the night, Best Actor in a Motion Picture.

11:51PM – Matthew McConaughey wins the Academy Award for Best Actor for “Dallas Buyers Club.”

11:55PM – Here it is!!  The 24th and FINAL category of the night.  Last night’s Razzie winner for Worst Supporting Actor (and father of last night’s Worst Actor winner) Will Smith presents the Oscar for Best Picture.

11:57PM – “12 Years a Slave” wins the Academy Award for Best Picture.  Brad Pitt accepts the Oscar on behalf of the producing team.

11:59PM – Steve McQueen has a laundry list of people to thank (literally).

12:00AM – It is Midnight on the East Coast, and Ellen calls it a night.  At three and a half-hours (plus), the 86th Annual Academy Awards is in the books.  The 2013-14 Movie Awards Season is in the books.  I’ve got to get a few ZZZZZ’s, so I can finish recording “The DJBC Happy Hour” in the morning.  Oh yeah, the pre-nominations for the 41st Annual Daytime Emmy Award nominations will be announced first thing in the morning.  Busy, busy morning.  Tomorrow TONIGHT (since it is officially Monday on the East Coast now) on “The DJBC Happy Hour”, a recap of the Oscars, plus a recap of the Golden Raspberry Awards, and a look at which of your favorite soap stars are STILL in the running for a Daytime Emmy Award.  Good night and good luck.
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- "American Hustle" went 0-10 on Oscar night, matching True Grit (2010) with the second-biggest shutout, behind "The Turning Point" (1977) and "The Color Purple" (1985).  "Hustle" became the first film since "Sunset Boulevard" (1950) to go 0-for-4 in each of the acting categories for a film that is nominated in all four acting categories.
- Songwriter Robert Lopez became the 12th member of the EGOT Club, winning Best Original Song (with his wife Kristen) for "Let It Go" from the Best Animated Feature winner "Frozen".
- Ellen's Oscar Selfie broke Twitter records for re-tweets.