Oh what a night! Whether you call it The Oscars or The Academy Awards, there is no denying it is the biggest night in Hollywood. From the red carpet pre-show all the way to the Best Picture announcement, it’s a night this Brazen Woman would not dare miss. The champagne was flowing at BrazenWoman and we are happy to report that the 86th annual event did not disappoint. While we have countless evening favourites, we were able to narrow it down to a top 10 list of moments we won’t soon forget. Read on to see if any of yours made our list.
Top Ten Moments from the 2014 Academy Awards
Jimmy Kimmel confronts mean tweeters during Oscars pre-show. We love Jimmy’s recurring piece Celebrities Read Mean Tweets and were literally LOL’ing during the Oscar pre-show when he climbed through a TV and confronted the mean tweeters in person. Of course the stunt was promoting his post-Oscar broadcast, but did he start a pre-show trend for future Oscars?
Ellen’s hilarious opening monologue. Ellen Degeneres should really win an award for her performance hosting the 86th Academy Awards. She had us laughing all night long but her opening monologue took the cake. We giggled uncontrollably as she poked fun at Jennifer Lawrence for tripping right on the red carpet as she practically fell out of the car, and at Jonah Hill: Honestly, you showed us something in [the Wolf of Wall Street] that I haven’t seen in a very, very long time [referring to a scene where we see his “man parts”]. She ended with: Anything can happen, so many different possibilities. Possibility number 1: 12 Years a Slave wins Best Picture. Possibility number 2: You are all racists. Get ready to watch and laugh: 
Jared Leto thanking his mom during his Best Supporting Actor acceptance speech. Jared Leto winning was no surprise – his performance in Dallas Buyers Club was nothing short of perfection. What surprised us was his touching acceptance speech where he took the time to thank his mom (who graced his arm as his date). I just want to say, I love you, Mom. Thank you for teaching me to dream. All together now: Awwwww. We want to thank her, too!
Pharrell Williams performing Happy. The Happy song is intoxicating. No matter what we are doing, we just can’t help but smile and do a little dance whenever it comes on. The best part: Pharrell’s performance had the front row A list celebs up on their feet. While the song did not take home an award, we know we will have “Happy” on the tips of our tongues and on our playlist for years to come. Sing along with this one: Darlene Love singing during her acceptance speech. Best Documentary is not one of the A-List categories we usually look forward to. OK, so we MAY have actually considered using that time to take a bathroom break. We are sure glad we held it in, though or we would have missed Darlene Love breaking out in song. The Oscar-winning documentary 20 Feet From Stardom follows Love and several other singers who have backed up some of the biggest musical talents to grace the stage. If you haven’t seen it, you should: 
Ellen breaks Twitter! Ellen was live tweeting some great behind-the-scenes pics all night. The best by far was the group shot she took while live on the air. What started as her and just a few celebs turned into a huge photo opp. Ellen announced she was trying to break a record for the most re-tweets ever and it was no wonder that a few minutes later, Twitter actually crashed. Talk about a following! 
Ellen orders pizza and feeds celebs in their seats. In case you don’t believe that Ellen stole the show (we probably could have just written a post all about how great a job she did), the pizza pics are priceless. We guess she wasn’t joking when she asked, early on, who wanted pizza (hilarious that a pregnant Kerry Washington was the first to put up her hand). Sure enough, a little while later, the pies arrived and she walked around handing it out to hungry celebs. Even Brad took a slice! Just a reminder that celebs are people, too… 
Lupita Nyong’o wins Best Supporting Actress. Perhaps the Best Dressed of the night, newcomer Lupita Nyong’o deserved her win for her fantastic portrayal in 12 Years a Slave. Her acceptance speech touched us almost as much as her performance in the film: It doesn’t escape me for one moment that so much joy in my life is thanks to so much pain in someone else’s, and so I want to salute the spirit of Patsy, she said through tears. And for Solomon [Northup, the author of 12 Years a Slave], thank you for telling her story, and your own.
Acceptance Speech for Best Song Winner of “cutest moment” of the evening goes to Robert Lopez and his wife Kristen Anderson-Lopez who took home a golden statue for their original song “Let It Go”, the hit single from Disney’s animated feature “Frozen”. They begin by giving us a giggle: “Thank you to the Academy. And to our fellow nominees, you are all rock stars. Literally”. Then go into a rhyming thank you that made us all smile. Check out the adorable couple below: And the top moment from the 86th Academy Awards goes to:
12 Years a Slave winning Best Picture. We jumped in the air when Will Smith read the winner into the mic. 12 Years a Slave was not just the best picture of the year, it just may be one of the top films ever. The true story, adapted from a book written by the main character, opens our eyes to human trafficking and the brutal, inhumane conditions that slaves in the south suffered through in the 1800’s. While the movie is hard to watch in spots, we expect (and hope) it will find its way into high school history classes. Watching the crowd’s reaction to the win, we saw that even the other nominees were genuinely applauding the win.
HONOURABLE MENTION: Goes to Ellen (again) for giving us a good laugh while dressed up as Glenda the Good Witch from The Wizard of Oz. Best Dressed?
