This Sunday, March 2^nd marked the 86^th annual Academy Awards with Ellen Degeneres hosting the show. Ellen was is rare form that evening, straying away from her usual family friendly, clean, daytime talk show humor.  Her performance was surprising, being that she was considered the “safe” choice, after last years host Seth Mcfarlene caused a number of controversies due to his on stage antics.

You may recall that certain song, directed towards the actresses present (specifically Kate Winslet), referencing the movies they did where appeared nude. Many found his hosting skills as tasteless, over the top and rude. But Ellen definitely had some zingers in there that wasn’t expected. She referred Liza Minelli as “the best Liza Minelli impersonator I’ve ever seen. He looks great.” Liza, obviously, wasn’t amused. Through the night she made costume changes, talked to the audience, and even ordered a pizza!

Many times she strayed away from the themes of classical cinema and brought in elements of the 21^st century by tweeting through the night onstage and took selfies with the nominees. She even crashed Twitter after tweeting a selfie with a large group of A-list stars. It was the most retweeted picture ever posted on the social media website. Ellen kept things light and funny and her overall hosting grade is a B+.

As far as the night’s winners, there were no surprises. Jared Leto won for Best Supporting Actor and Lupita Nyong’o won for Best Supporting Actress, deservingly so. For Lead Actor and Actress, Cate Blanchet and Matthew McConaughey were the victors. It was interesting to see three first time nominees, come home with a win. The 1800’s period piece “12 Years a Slave” was crowned grand supreme, after also winning Best Adapted Screenplay and Best supporting actress. A total of 3 wins out of its 9 nominations. Another big winner was the CGI masterpiece “Gravity,” stealing 7 golden statues for mostly technical excellence.   It had the highest tally of wins in the 2014 ceremony.

On the other side, “American Hustle” came home empty handed.  The film was nominated for 10 awards and did not win any of them. It is the first movie to have all nominees in all four acting categories and not win any of them, leaving the cast’s permed and fluffy- wigged heads hanging low.

Over all, the show was a success raking in 43.5 million viewers. Ellen proved herself as a great host, playing up to par next to Tina Fey and Amy Pohler, hopefully the beginning of a streak with more funny women hosting award shows and late night TV programs. The best of the best in cinema was awarded and given the recognition they deserved. While the show has a reputation to be boring and long, there were many great performances and surprises that kept things interesting. The 86^th Academy Awards was another one for the books and will keep us waiting for next year.