{"id":12421,"date":"2014-03-03T17:04:15","date_gmt":"2014-03-03T23:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/?p=12421"},"modified":"2014-03-03T17:04:15","modified_gmt":"2014-03-03T23:04:15","slug":"86th-academy-awards-from-the-bland-to-the-brilliant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/2014\/03\/03\/86th-academy-awards-from-the-bland-to-the-brilliant\/","title":{"rendered":"86th Academy Awards: From the Bland to the Brilliant"},"content":{"rendered":"

If there\u2019s one thing to be said about last night\u2019s Oscar\u2019s, it\u2019s this: it was fabulous, but not for the awards themselves.<\/p>\n

Now, I\u2019m not trying to bash Ellen<\/strong>\u2019s fabulous hosting skills (seriously, so many steps up from McFarlane last year) or the wonderful performances given by all the different nominees. But watching the show felt like getting a recap of the red carpet. One of The Red Carpet\u2019s reporters, while covering the fashion of the 86th Academy Awards, also mentioned the favorites to win in each category. They predicted a sweep from \u201cGravity\u201d (including the award for Best Director going to Alfonso Cuar\u00f3n), awards for both Jared Leto and Matthew McConaughey from \u201cDallas Buyer\u2019s Club\u201d, Cate Blanchett winning Best Actress for \u201cBlue Jasmine\u201d, and Lupita Nyong\u2019o earning Best Supporting Actress for \u201c12 Years a Slave\u201d.What do all these prediction have in common? They all turned out to be true.<\/p>\n

And so, the core of the awards show this year, for the most part, was bland. I have to admit, I did scream a little when \u201c12 Years a Slave\u201d won Best Picture, but otherwise, I was sitting back and calling out the winners for each award before the nominees were even announced. But luckily, there were plenty of things about last night that made the 86th Oscars special, if it wasn\u2019t the awards themselves.<\/p>\n

We can\u2019t talk Oscars without talking fashion, of course. And while plenty of people made a big impact, I can\u2019t help but call out a select few. Amy Adams, Lupita Nyong\u2019o, <\/strong>and Cate Blanchett<\/strong> were my fashion favorites of last night, wearing Gucci, Prada, and Armani respectively. Nyong\u2019o\u2019s choice especially struck a chord with me, as she explained how the pale blue she had chosen reminded her of her childhood and her home in Nairobi.\u00a0But the red carpet isn\u2019t just about the dresses – it\u2019s also a chance to hear soundbites from the actors and actresses themselves. And while most of the interviews came and went, a couple stood out to me. Sandra Bullock spoke impassionedly about how her role in \u201cGravity\u201d changed her as a person, while Leonardo DiCaprio<\/strong> gave an intelligent, brief explanation of how \u201cThe Wolf of Wall Street\u201d came to be.<\/p>\n

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Amy Adams, Lupita Nyong\u2019o, and Cate Blanchett<\/p><\/div>\n

During the show itself, there were a lot of familiar faces among the presenters who handed out the awards (shout out to Joseph Gordon-Levitt<\/strong>, repping hitRECord with a logo on his suit!<\/a>), as well as the performances throughout the night. Karen O., Pharrell Williams, Idina Menzel, <\/strong>and U2<\/strong> all graced the stage to perform their Oscar-nominated songs. And while Menzel\u2019s \u201cLet It Go\u201d obviously took home the award, I have to say that Williams\u2019 performance was my favorite. His interactivity with the audience made his song, \u201cHappy\u201d, even more fun and entertaining. And Menzel\u2019s vocals and timing were – dare I say it? – a bit weak.<\/p>\n

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Clearly the best moment of the night: Pharrell Williams and Meryl Streep<\/strong> having some fun during the performance of “Happy”.<\/p><\/div>\n

Ellen DeGeneres tied together the entire show with her casual approach to hosting. Many critics of last year\u2019s show claimed that McFarlane ruined the class and Hollywood glamor associated with the Academy Awards. Instead of trying to reclaim this class, DeGeneres took the opportunity and ran with it, making the formal event into something almost cozy. Between cracking hilarious jokes, tweeting pictures from the theater, and ordering a couple large pizzas for the stars, she entertained the viewers and the actors themselves at the same time, making for a show that the whole family could enjoy watching.<\/p>\n

Let me be honest, though: the icing on the cake was the acceptance speeches – two in particular. Nyong\u2019o\u2019s speech was incredibly emotional, and her loyalty to her roots was emphasized once again as she made a point to thank Patsy, the character she portrayed in her movie, for inspiration. She also arguably spoke the line of the night: \u201c…So much joy in my life is thanks to so much pain in someone else\u2019s.\u201d The young actress was as articulate as always; despite crying through her speech, she managed to convey an important sentiment to her audience. Yet her shrewd insight here could arguably be matched by Cate Blanchett\u2019s speech. Blanchett asserted that \u201cfemale films with women at the center are [not] niche experiences\u2026. Audiences want to see them and, in fact, they earn money\u201d. In a world where each nominee for Best Actor had 30 minutes more screen time in their respective movie than each nominee for Best Actress (http:\/\/www.policymic.com\/articles\/83785\/hollywood-s-huge-gender-gap-in-one-disturbing-statistic?utm_source=policymicTBLR&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=Feb), her words undoubtedly struck a chord with the women watching, both in the theater and at home.<\/p>\n

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From right to left: Matthew McConaughey (Best Actor), Cate Blanchett (Best Actress), Lupita Nyong’o (Best Supporting Actress), and Jared Leto (Best Supporting Actor).<\/p><\/div>\n

And at the end of the night, it was these memories that will stay with the viewers. Not the awards themselves, but the wonderful performances and powerful speeches given by the greatest actors and actresses currently in cinema. Thanks to these nominees, I can say with confidence that Ellen\u2019s own words at the opening of the show came true: \u201cIt\u2019s going to be an exciting night. Anything can happen, so many different possibilities. Possibility number one: 12 Years a Slave wins best picture. Possibility number two: You\u2019re all racists.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If there\u2019s one thing to be said about last night\u2019s Oscar\u2019s, it\u2019s this: it was fabulous, but not for the awards themselves. Now, I\u2019m not…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":12426,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1020],"tags":[1948,2263,2262,1180],"coauthors":[1899],"class_list":["post-12421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ae","tag-1948","tag-awards-show","tag-nominees","tag-oscars"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12421"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12444,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12421\/revisions\/12444"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12421"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=12421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}