"Birdman," helmed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, soars at the Academy taking home best picture and best director. (Photo : Reuters)
Alejandro González Iñárritu's movie about a washed-up actor who is trying to make a comeback through Broadway took home four Oscars. One of them is the Academy's highest honor, the Best Picture Award.
Eddie Redmayne won Best Actor for his role as Stephen Hawking in "The Theory of Everything," beating former superhero Michael Keaton.
The eight movies battling for Best Picture won at least one Academy award. A big disappointment for Richard Linklater's "Boyhood" depicting a story of coming of age using the same actors for 12 years and took home only one Oscar amid its six nominations.
Wes Anderson's "The Grand Budapest Hotel" won four awards out of nine nominations.
Damien Chazelle's independent film "Whiplash," depicting the story of a young drummer and his sadistic mentor, took home three awards.
Quite noticeable but purely unintentional is the small number of African-Americans nominated. To which, host Neil Patrick Harris made a light attempt in humor saying in his opening, "Tonight we honor Hollywood's best and whitest, I mean brightest."
Themes of race memories went a notch serious with Common and John Legend singing the theme from the 1960's civil rights movie "Selma." The performance was met with standing ovation and some tears among the audience. "Selma" won best song.
Five time Academy-nominated Julianne Moore won Best Actress for her role in "Still Alice."
Patricia Arquette took home the Best Supporting Actress for her heartbreaking performance as a single mother in "Boyhood," while J.K. Simmons won Best Supporting Actor in his role as a sadistic music teacher in "Whiplash."
For the biggest televised event outside the sports world, the Academy aimed to attract young viewers who may not care much about the films but who could tune in for the musical acts.
Polish filmmaker Pawel Pawlikowski's "Ida" won Best Foreign-Language Film, while Laura Poitras' "Citizenfour" won Best Documentary.
In order for the Academy to attract young viewers for the big televised event, Lady Gaga was invited to sing a medley of songs from the movie "Sound of Music."
