The Night with Ellen DeGeneres
Back in 2006 when Ellen DeGeneres was the host of the Oscars, she was okay but not amazing. However, she got the gist of being the host for such an important night and turned the viewings around on the evening of 2nd March, 2014.
Her host became the most watched Oscar telecast since 2005. Not only her monologue in the beginning had this charming interaction with the stars that we all admire, but also her spontaneously made up jokes were cool and calm. Even though the stage setting and the flow of the show was average, with her spark of genius, she made close contact with the nominees and guests at the audience.
This selfie, which was first addressed to Meryl Streep so that they could break a record along with Meryl's nomination track record, is the very proof of how resourceful she is to connect viewers of Twitter and on TV to the Hollywood circle. It literally crashed Twitter when it was eventually well taken by Bradley Cooper. The person on the rightmost with black framed glasses is apparently the brother of Lupita Nyong'o (Best Supporting Actress winner). The genius of this selfie even incorporated non-Hollywood people who ultimately can be part of the Hollywood dream.
Ellen redefined the Oscars ceremony and strengthened our awareness to it via social media and the new generation of the film industry.
Another moment of genius came when she suddenly engaged on the view of her guests having pizzas. Although it seemed to have broken the traditional rule of hosting the Oscars, she successfully projected the fundamental human side of stars, when viewers would always think how posh and wealthy the stars dress and behave at these occasions. After all, they are just human beings like one another when they can go casual and not feeling embarrassed in having pizzas. The pizza man just came in with three pizza boxes in one of the intermissions and most of the stars took a slice whenever Ellen invited them to, except for one pooper who acted really uncool, Leonardo diCaprio.
Pizza delivery man became one of the luckiest man to take away a US$840 tip, with Harvey Weinstein tipping in $200 if I recall correctly.
We see Ellen a lot on her shows inviting superstars and questioning them in a cool manner, but her reinvention on the Oscars ceremony really took the ambience to a new level. Thanks to her coolness, genius mind and spontaneity.
Deserving wins and Glamorous moments
- Best Picture: Brad Pitt won his 1st Oscar as a producer for 12 Years A Slave.
- Best Original Screenplay: Love for Spike Jonze's Her is around.
- Best Actress: Cate blanchett showing her gratitude towards Woody Allen after being the seventh winner from Woody Allen films.
- Best Actor: Matthew McConaughey's acceptance speech was powerful and soulful, listing three principles he cherishes in life. Alright, alright, alright!
- Best Supporting Actor: Jared Leto's universal love and support for those who are in need, as well as thanking her mother who raised him and his brother up from hardship.
- Best Animated Feature: Most prepared speech from winners of Frozen. Well-spoken!
Those shocking moments...
Before going into the shocking moments, I have to clarify my belief in Leonardo diCaprio not winning Best Actor is never a shocking moment at all. What was shocking was his joyous face and eventually sucking the pride and tears up when he lost to Matthew McConaughey.
- Whatever category it was nominated for: American Hustle goes home empty handed with 10 nominations. Even more disappointing for its director David O. Russell.
- Best Animated Short: Mickey Mouse's Get a Horse lost to Mr. Hublot.
- Best Original Score: First time nominee Steven Price got his well-composed Gravity on the spot and won the Oscar over 12-time nominee Thomas Newman and 6-time nominee Alexandre Desplat.
Jennifer Lawrence handles her second trip at the Oscars, but this time at the red carpets over a traffic cone. If she had won, a third trip would probably happen. No wonder Ellen joked and offered to bring her the award if she won.
Since when did Ellen dress in a fantasy outfit like that......
Evaluation of filmAEO's predictions
19/24 predictions, achieving an accuracy of 79%
Categories that I missed...
- Best Original Screenplay
- Best Costume Design
- Best Film Editing
- Best Animated Short
- Best Live Action Short
What went wrong...
Best Original Screenplay: Her (Winner); American Hustle (Prediction)
Best Costume Design: The Great Gatsby (Winner); American Hustle (Prediction)
- Thought American Hustle would win something at least for their costumes that truly reflected the 70s and its clever plot and dialogue of con artists, agents and politicians, considering its 10 nominations.
- Originally thought The Great Gatsby will just win one Oscar for Best Production Design.
- American Hustle possesses both originality and the fun element, whereas Her is truly original yet sad and serious.
Best Film Editing: Gravity (Winner); Captain Phillips (Prediction)
- Thought Tom Hank's Best Actor and Paul Greengrass' Best Director snubs would bring the film some sympathetic support, especially for its intensive way of editing the film.
- Recent win for ACE Eddie Awards could gather stronger support to vote for Captain Phillips.
- Technical voters are still amazed by the achievement and breakthrough of Gravity.
Best Animated Short: Mr. Hublot (Winner); Get a Horse (Prediction)
Best Live Action Short: Helium (Winner); The Voorman Problem (Prediction)
- Both categories have been historically hard to make a guess unless you have seen them all, which filmAEO has not, except Get A Horse.
- Thought there was a strong support for Mickey Mouse, considering its last win was many years ago.
filmAEO's analysis on Oscars will see you all in next year!
Interstellar (2014) directed by Christopher Nolan; starring Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain
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