OSCARS 2015: From "Moving Pictures" to moving pictures, the winners and the gifs

Maybe I expected too much of Neil Patrick Harris. I thought the whole show would be as magical as his "Moving Pictures" opening song and dance number. Joined by Anna Kendrick in search of her missing shoe — a nod to her Cinderella character from Into the Woods — and Jack Black,  NPH began the evening with a big, brash talented statement of celebration but somewhere along the way he lost his way.

Don't get me wrong, overall I enjoyed the show. It's just that he wasn't the cool, caustic but still charming and likable NPH, I expected to see. My brother who was in the house—I saw my bro and his wife Eva walking on the Red Carpet on television which is always a kick—enjoyed him, while his wife was less enthusiastic. Maybe it's a guy thing? While the bit that had him marching to the stage from his dressing room in his tightie whities ala Michael Keaton in Birdman was bold and funny, his forays into the audience to chat were flat and awkward, as if he had actually counted on his abilities to wing it, only to realize, like most of us do when unprepared, that he couldn't quite fly.

Still, an evening where Common and Legends' performance of Glory brought much of the audience, including Oprah, and Chris Pines—and me—to tears couldn't be bad.

An evening that reunited John Travolta and Idina Menzel in a touchy-feely face to face wasn't without a few more great moments, including Lady Gaga's beautiful medley from The Sound of Music.  I knew she could sing, I just didn't know she could SING! Still, I wasn't really sure why Gaga was there, and why she was singing, er, what she was singing until Julie Andrews came onstage too. Apparently it's the Sound of Music's 50 year anniversary so go buy a 50th Anniversary DVD or Blu-Ray with all the special features. Or something.

An evening where Julianne Moore won Best Actress for her honest portrayal of a woman with Early Onset Alzheimer's Disease in Still Alice, my favorite female performance of the year, is an evening to remember. I'm gratified the film has brought so much attention to the disease that doesn't just rob people of their parents — my mother died from complications from Alzheimer's in her late eighties, but the disease took her long, long before then — it steals the victims of their very selfhood, is getting some real attention. Hopefully a mega increase in funding will be the result.

An evening where Patricia Arquette won the Best Supporting Actress for Boyhood as expected but used her time to deliver an impassioned speech for equal pay, with Meryl Streep and Jennifer Lopez cheering in a unity of sisterhood, is an evening that has something going for it.

An evening where Eddie Redmayne freaks out a tad too awkwardly enthusiastic just has to make you laugh.

And an evening where Alexandre Desplat —gif-less but not gift-less —finally, finally wins an Oscar is an evening to celebrate. The man has been nominated time and again (eight times) — well, golly, he was up for two film scores this year alone, both The Imitation Game and The Grand Budapest Hotel — and finally took home gold for The Grand Budapest Hotel. 

While TGBH also snagged quite a few of the craft awards: production design, make-up, and costume design, Birdman won the big prize(s); Best Picture, Best Director (Alejandro Iñárritu), Best Original Screenplay and Best Cinematography for Emmanuel Lubezki, who won last year for Gravity.  Michael Keaton, nominated for Birdman did not win, that prize went  to Eddie Redmayne for The Theory of Everything: both men, all the nominees truly, delivered remarkable performances.

Disappointments?
That Boyhood didn't win Best Picture. I didn't realize until it didn't win, just how much I was rooting for it. Besides its first of its kind achievement—making a film over a 12 year period? That's a novel idea!—it's a heart-achingly beautiful film about life that touched me to the core.

That the in-memoriam followed up by Jennifer Hudson's big belted tune lacked the emotion that usually accompanies our look back at the talents lost this past year. It may have been the artwork, sketches that did little to enhance our understanding of their contributions.

That George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon were nowhere in sight. I missed their A-List charms.

And that Neil Patrick Harris did a mostly good, but not mind-blowing job, although his Oscar predictions locked in a clear box onstage sort of was. Still not sure how that was done.

Here's the full winners list, in order of appearance.

Best supporting actor
WINNER: JK Simmons for Whiplash
Robert Duvall for The Judge
Ethan Hawke for Boyhood
Edward Norton for Birdman
Mark Ruffalo for Foxcatcher

Achievement in costume design
WINNER: The Grand Budapest Hotel – Milena Canonero
Inherent Vice – Mark Bridges
Into the Woods – Colleen Atwood
Maleficent – Anna B Sheppard
Mr Turner – Jacqueline Durran

Achievement in makeup and hairstyling
WINNER: The Grand Budapest Hotel – Frances Hannon, Mark Coulier
Foxcatcher – Bill Corso, Dennis Liddiard
Guardians of the Galaxy – Elizabeth Yianni-Georgiou, David White

Best foreign-language film
WINNER: Ida – Paweł Pawlikowski
Tangerines – Zaza Urushadze
Leviathan – Andrey Zvyagintsev
Wild Tales – Damián Szifrón
Timbuktu – Abderrahmane Sissako

Best live-action short film
WINNER: The Phone Call – Mat Kirkby, James Lucas
Aya – Oded Binnun, Mihal Brezis
Boogaloo and Graham – Michael Lennox, Ronan Blaney
Butter Lamp – Wei Hu, Julien Féret
Parvaneh – Talkhon Hamzavi, Stefan Eichenberger

Best documentary short subject
WINNER: Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1 – Ellen Goosenberg Kent, Dana Perry
Joanna – Aneta Kopacz
Our Curse – Tomasz Sliwinski, Maciej Slesicki
The Reaper – Gabriel Serra
White Earth – Christian Jensen

Achievement in sound mixing
WINNER: Whiplash – Craig Mann, Ben Wilkins, Thomas Curley
American Sniper – John T Reitz, Gregg Rudloff, Walt Martin
Birdman – Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño, Thomas Varga
Interstellar – Gary Rizzo, Gregg Landaker, Mark Weingarten
Unbroken – Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño, David Lee

Achievement in sound editing
WINNER: American Sniper – Alan Robert Murray, Bub Asman
Birdman – Aaron Glascock, Martín Hernández
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies – Brent Burge, Jason Canovas
Interstellar – Richard King
Unbroken – Becky Sullivan, Andrew DeCristofaro

Best supporting actress
WINNER: Patricia Arquette for Boyhood
Laura Dern for Wild
Keira Knightley for The Imitation Game
Emma Stone for Birdman
Meryl Streep for Into the Woods

Achievement in visual effects
WINNER: Interstellar – Paul J Franklin, Andrew Lockley, Ian Hunter, Scott R Fisher
Captain America: The Winter Soldier – Dan Deleeuw, Russell Earl, Bryan Grill, Daniel Sudick
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, Daniel Barrett, Erik Winquist
Guardians of the Galaxy – Stephane Ceretti, Nicolas Aithadi, Jonathan Fawkner, Paul Corbould
X-Men: Days of Future Past – Richard Stammers, Lou Pecora, Tim Crosbie, Cameron Waldbauer

Best animated short film
WINNER: Feast – Patrick Osborne, Kristina Reed
The Bigger Picture – Daisy Jacobs, Chris Hees
The Dam Keeper – Robert Kondo, Daisuke “Dice” Tsutsumi
Me and My Moulton – Torill Kove
A Single Life – Joris Oprins

Best animated feature film
WINNER: Big Hero 6
The Boxtrolls
How to Train Your Dragon 2
Song of the Sea
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya

Best production design
WINNER: The Grand Budapest Hotel: Adam Stockhausen, Anna Pinnock
The Imitation Game: Maria Djurkovic, Tatiana Macdonald
Interstellar: Nathan Crowley, Gary Fettis
Into the Woods: Dennis Gassner, Anna Pinnock
Mr Turner: Suzie Davies, Charlotte Watts

Achievement in cinematography
WINNER: Birdman: Emmanuel Lubezki
The Grand Budapest Hotel: Robert D Yeoman
Ida: Lukasz Zal, Ryszard Lenczewski
Mr Turner: Dick Pope
Unbroken: Roger Deakins

Achievement in film editing
WINNER: Whiplash – Tom Cross
Boyhood – Sandra Adair
The Imitation Game – William Goldenberg
The Grand Budapest Hotel – Barney Pilling
American Sniper – Joel Cox, Gary Roach

Best documentary feature
WINNER: Citizenfour – Laura Poitras, Mathilde Bonnefoy, Dirk Wilutzky
Finding Vivian Maier – John Maloof, Charlie Siskel
Last Days in Vietnam – Rory Kennedy, Keven McAlester
The Salt of the Earth – Wim Wenders, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, David Rosier
Virunga – Orlando von Einsiedel, Joanna Natasegara

Best original song
WINNER: Glory from Selma – Lonnie Lynn (Common), John Stephens (John Legend)
The Lego Movie – Shawn Patterson (Everything Is Awesome)
Beyond the Lights – Diane Warren (Grateful)
Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me – Glen Campbell, Julian Raymond (I’m Not Gonna Miss You)
Begin Again – Gregg Alexander, Danielle Brisebois (Lost Stars)

Best original score
WINNER: Alexandre Desplat – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Alexandre Desplat – The Imitation Game
Hans Zimmer – Interstellar
Jóhann Jóhannsson– The Theory of Everything
Gary Yershon – Mr Turner

Original screenplay
WINNER: Alejandro González Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Armando Bo – Birdman
Richard Linklater – Boyhood
E Max Frye, Dan Futterman – Foxcatcher
Wes Anderson, Hugo Guinness – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Dan Gilroy – Nightcrawler

Adapted screenplay
WINNER: Graham Moore – The Imitation Game
Jason Hall – American Sniper
Paul Thomas Anderson – Inherent Vice
Anthony McCarten – The Theory of Everything
Damien Chazelle – Whiplash

Best director
WINNER: Alejandro González Iñárritu for Birdman
Richard Linklater for Boyhood
Bennett Miller for Foxcatcher
Wes Anderson for The Grand Budapest Hotel
Morten Tyldum for The Imitation Game

Best actor
WINNER: Eddie Redmayne for The Theory of Everything
Steve Carell for Foxcatcher
Benedict Cumberbatch for The Imitation Game
Bradley Cooper for American Sniper
Michael Keaton for Birdman

Best actress
WINNER: Julianne Moore for Still Alice
Marion Cotillard for Two Days, One Night
Felicity Jones for The Theory of Everything
Rosamund Pike for Gone Girl
Reese Witherspoon for Wild

Best picture
WINNER: Birdman
American Sniper
Boyhood
The Imitation Game
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Selma
The Theory of Everything
Whiplash