The 87th Academy Awards premiered on Sunday, Feb. 22 with Neil Patrick Harris as the host this year. Harris is no stranger to hosting awards shows, but this is his first year hosting the Academy Awards.
Harris started off the night by saying, “Tonight we celebrate Hollywood’s best and whitest, sorry –brightest.” The joke refers to this year’s Academy Awards nominees lacking in diversity. Harris continued through his host by doing a magic trick, teasing some members of the audience, claiming his predictions for tonight’s winners were fairly accurate, and at one point even went on stage in only his underwear.
The jokes and banter delivered by Harris got an uneven response from the audience. Some jokes did better than others, but overall he did a decent job as host.
Most of the touching moments in the show were the touching words included in winners’ acceptance speeches. J.K. Simmons encouraged viewers to call their parents and thank them for being in their lives, and Patricia Arquette used her speech as a call for feminism, and received standing ovations from many actresses in the crowd.
There were also, of course, some not so great moments it the awards show. The most obvious one is Joan Rivers being snubbed from the “In Memoriam” tribute. It is not uncommon for the “In Memoriam” section to leave someone out, but audiences were shocked that someone as famous as Rivers could be forgotten.
The show also included some amazing musical performances. Maroon 5 started with a performance of “Lost Stars,” Common and John Legend performed “Glory” from Selma, and Tegan and Sara, and the Lonely Island did a highly entertaining performance of “Everything is Awesome” from The Lego Movie. Also included was “I’m Not Gonna Miss You” sung by Tim McGraw, “Grateful” by Rita Ora, “I Can’t Let Go” by Jennifer Hudson, and a career-changing rendition of “The Sound of Music” by Lady Gaga.
Another year has passed and we can finally say goodbye to the 2015 Academy Awards. Here is a list of the winners below:
Best supporting actor – JK Simmons for ‘Whiplash’
Achievement in costume design – ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ – Milena Canonero
Achievement in make-up and hairstyling – ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ – Frances Hannon, Mark Coulier
Best foreign language film – ‘Ida’ – Pawel Pawlikowski
Best live-action short film – ‘The Phone Call’ – Mat Kirby, James Lucas
Best documentary short subject – ‘Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1’ – Ellen Goosenberg Kent, Dana Perry
Achievement in sound mixing – ‘Whiplash’ – Craig Mann, Ben Wilkins, Thomas Curley
Achievement in sound editing – ‘American Sniper’ – Alan Robert Murray, Bub Asman
Best supporting actress – Patricia Arquette for ‘Boyhood’
Achievement in visual effects – ‘Interstellar’ – Paul J Franklin, Andrew Lockley, Ian Hunter, Scott R Fisher
Best animated short film – ‘Feast’ – Patrick Osborne, Kristina Reed
Best animated feature film – ‘Big Hero 6’
Best production design – ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ – Adam Stockhausen, Anna Pinnock
Achievement in cinematography – ‘Birdman’ – Emmanuel Lubezki
Achievement in film editing – ‘Whiplash’ – Tom Cross
Best documentary feature – ‘Citizenfour’ – Laura Poitras, Mathilde Bonnefoy, Dirk Wilutzky
Best original song – Glory from ‘Selma’ – Common, John Legend
Best original score – ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ – Alexandre Desplat
Original screenplay – ‘Birdman’ – Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Nicolas Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Armando Bo
Adapted screenplay – ‘The Imitation Game’ – Graham Moore
Best director – ‘Birdman’ – Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
Best actor – Eddie Redmayne for ‘The Theory of Everything’
Best actress – Julianne Moore for ‘Still Alice’
Best picture – ‘Birdman’