Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) was acclaimed Best Picture at the 87th Annual Academy Awards or more popularly known as the Oscars.
Birdman, a film about a faded Hollywood actor famous for his role as superhero struggles to mount a Broadway play, won a total of four awards.
Aside from Best Picture, it won Best Director for Mexican director Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Cinematography.
Last year, a Mexican director also won the trophy for Best Director—Alfonso Cuaron for Gravity.
Eddie Redmayne beat heavy favorite Michael Keaton (Birdman) to win Best Actor for his role as English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, author Stephen Hawking who was diagnosed with ALS, or also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, in The Theory of Everything.
Julianne Moore, on the other hand, won her first Oscar for her portrayal as a Columbia linguistic professor diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.
Interestingly, Julianne and Eddie co-starred in the 2007 film Savage Grace, where they played mother and son who are having an incestuous relationship.
Boyhood, another pre-Oscar favorite, was almost shut out at this year's awards ceremony, managing to win only one award out of its six nominations — Best Supporting Actress for Patricia Arquette, who played a single mother.
On the other hand, veteran actor J.K. Simmons was honored with a Best Supporting Actor win for his performance as an abusive jazz instructor in Whiplash, which went home with three Oscars.
Best Adapted Screenplay was won by Graham Moore for his work in The Imitation Game.
The Oscar voters spread the love for all the eight Best Picture nominees, each receiving at least one win: Birdman and The Grand Budapest Hotel each won four awards; Whiplash had three; while The Theory of Everything, The Imitation Game, Boyhood, American Sniper, and Selma had one trophy apiece.
HOST, PRESENTERS, PERFORMERS. Neil Patrick Harris, who at one point came out on stage in his white underwear (parody of a famous scene in Birdman), did great as host for the first time.
Oscars 2015 proved to be a star-studded event with the presence of some of the most popular (and some of the best) celebrities in Hollywood.
Presenters include Lupita Nyong’o, Liam Neeson, Dakota Johnson, Jennifer Lopez, Chris Pine, Reese Witherspoon, Channing Tatum, Nicole Kidman, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Shirley MacLaine…
Marion Cotillard, Kerry Washington, Jason Bateman, Viola Davis, Gwyneth Paltrow, Margot Robbie, Miles Teller, Sienna Miller, Chris Evans, Jared Leto…
Josh Hutcherson, Ansel Elgort, Chloe Grace Moretz , Kevin Hart, Anna Kendrick, Zoe Saldana, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Chris Pratt, Felicity Jones, Idris Alba, Jessica Chastain…
Meryl Streep, Naomi Watts, Benedict Cumberbatch, Terrence Howard, Jennifer Aniston, David Oyelowo, Octavia Spencer, Idina Menzel, John Travolta, Scarlett Johansson…
Julie Andrews, Eddie Murphy, Oprah Winfrey, Ben Affleck, Cate Blanchett, Matthew McConaughey, and Sean Penn
Performers include Anna Kendrick, Jack Black, Adam Levine, Tim McGraw, Rita Ora, Jennifer Hudson, John Legend and Common.
Lady Gaga, probably in her most ordinary-looking makeup and costume, performed some of the songs from The Sound of Music, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary.
The singer, who got a standing ovation for her performance, recently got engaged to actor Taylor Kinney.
WINNERS. The awards ceremony was held Sunday night, February 22 (morning of February 23, Manila time), at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, California.
Here is the full list of winners in Oscars 2015:
Best Picture – Birdman
Best Actor - Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything
Best Actress - Julianne Moore, Still Alice
Best Director - Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Birdman
Best Original Screenplay - Birdman, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Jr. & Armando Bo
Best Adapted Screenplay - The Imitation Game, Graham Moore
Best Supporting Actor – J.K. Simmons, Whiplash
Best Supporting Actress - Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
Best Foreign Language Film - Ida, Poland
Best Animated Film - Big Hero 6
Best Film Editing - Whiplash, Tom Cross
Best Cinematography – Birdman, Emmanuel Lubezki
Best Production Design - The Grand Budapest Hotel, Production Design: Adam Stockhausen; Set Decoration: Anna Pinnock
Best Visual Effects - Interstellar, Paul Franklin, Andrew Lockley, Ian Hunter and Scott Fisher
Best Original Song - “Glory” from Selma; Music and Lyric by John Stephens and Lonnie Lynn
Best Original Score - The Grand Budapest Hotel, Alexandre Desplat
Best Sound Editing - American Sniper, Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman
Best Sound Mixing - Whiplash, Craig Mann, Ben Wilkins and Thomas Curley
Best Costume Design - The Grand Budapest Hotel, Milena Canonero
Best Makeup and Hairstyling - The Grand Budapest Hotel, Frances Hannon and Mark Coulier
Best Documentary Feature - Citizenfour
Best Documentary Short - Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1
Best Live Action Short - The Phone Call
Best Animated Short – Feast
The 87th Annual Academy Awards will air again on HBO tonight (Feb 23) at 9 P.M., Friday (Feb 27) at 11.10 P.M. and Sunday (Mar 1) at 4.30 P.M. (SGT).