The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences held the 87th Academy Awards Feb. 22—and most of the wins went as expected.
Julianne Moore won Best Actress for her role in the Alzheimer's drama Still Alice (directed by same-sex couple Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland), Patricia Arquette won for Best Supporting Actress for Boyhood and J.K. Simmons (previously known for work on TV shows such as Law and Order as well as Oz) won Best Supporting Actor for Whiplash. Eddie Redmayne, in a win that surprised some, edged Birdman's Michael Keaton to win Best Actor; Redmayne portrays Stephen Hawking in the film The Theory of Everything. Also, Birdman won the biggest film prize of the night, for Best Picture. In all, all eight of the Best Picture contenders won awards, with Birdman and The Grand Budapest Hotel tying for the most (four each).
Citizenfour won for Best Documentary. Laura Poitras' film documents her initial meeting in Hong Kong with Edward Snowden (who leaked National Security Agency documents to Wikileaks) as well as gay journalist Glenn Greenwald.
Chicagoan Graham Moore won for Best Adapted Screenplay for the movie The Imitation Game, which depicts the life of the late gay British codebreaker Alan Turing. During his speech, he talked about depression and suicide. (Turing committed suicide in 1954 at age 41.) "I tried to commit suicide at 16 and now I'm standing here," Moore said. "I would like for this moment to be for that kid out there who feels like she doesn't fit in anywhere. You do. Stay weird. Stay different, and then when it's your turn and you are standing on this stage please pass the same message along."
Arquette took time during her speech to stress equality for women: "To every woman who gave birth to every taxpayer and every citizen of this nation, we have fought for everybody else's equal rights. It's our time to have wage equality once and for all and equal rights for women in the United States of America."
The Chicago rapper/actor Common also spoke of rights and inclusion. Common—who won an Oscar with singer John Legend for Best Original Song for "Glory," from the film Selma—said, "[The Edmund Pettus Bridge] was once a landmark of a divided nation but now is the symbol for change. The spirit of this bridge transcends race, gender, religion, sexual orientation and social status.
"The spirit of this bridge connects the kid from the South Side of Chicago dreaming of a better life to those in France standing up for their freedom of expression, to the people in Hong Kong protesting for democracy."
Legend also got political, saying, "Selma is now because the struggle for justice is now. We know that the voting rights that they fought for 50 years ago is being compromised in this country today." Legend also said there are "more Black men under correctional control today than were in slavery."
Common and Legend were praised for their performance of "Glory"—one that caused audience members ranging from actor Chris Pine to Selma actor David Oyelowo to shed tears.
The musical performance was one of several that blew up social media. Lady Gaga, for many, was the musical high point of the night, as she performed several songs from the classic film The Sound of Music, which marks its 50th anniversary this year. Original film actress Julie Andrews then stepped out on stage, and gave Gaga a long hug.
In addition, Canadian lesbian twin duo Tegan and Sara sang The Lego Movie's "Everything Is Awesome" in a rollicking performance that included Questlove, Will Arnett, Lonely Island and Devo's Mark Mothersbaugh. In addition, audience members were given Lego Oscars.
While some of the remarks may have been controversial (including Sean Penn's "green card" comment to friend/Birdman director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu), there was also some blowback on social media regarding an omission: Joan Rivers. Rivers was not included in the "In Memoriam" segment; besides being a red-carpet fixture, Rivers was in films such as her documentary A Piece of Work and directed 1978's The Rabbit Test.
Event host Neil Patrick Harris received mixed reviews for his performance, which included everything from a magic trick to the opening musical number to a segment that had him in his underwear. Slate Magazine, for example, wrote, "The Oscars undid even [Harris], whose magic touch fell as flat as the night's long-running, ostensible magic trick. To be fair to Harris, he wasn't working with very good material."
