Oscar Recap: The Best Moments from the 2015 Academy Awards

Although the two Oscar-nominated Aussies—sound mixer David Lee for Unbroken and visual effects artist Tim Crosbie for X-Men: Days of Future Past—went home empty handed, the 2015 Academy Awards were a great way to celebrate the art and craft that goes into making films.

Where Every Awards Show Starts: The Red Carpet

The Aussie women on the red carpet stunned—as they always do. Naomi Watts, a member of the cast of Birdman went a little against the trend of the night of simple templates and colours with a fun texture and patterned dress from Armani.

Cate Blanchett’s necklace was a trending topic during red carpet arrivals: the piece stood out perfectly against her black velvet John Galliano dress.

Nicole Kidman’s shorter hair cut reflected the trend throughout Hollywood, and her Louis Vuitton dress stunned.

Relative newcomer to the a-list scene Margot Robbie’s look—like Blanchett’s—combined a statement jewellery piece (from Van Cleef & Arpels) with a black dress from Saint Laurent.

And the Winner is...

Birdman won the big prize of the night: Best Picture. The film, featuring nominee Michael Keaton, Naomi Watts, nominee Emma Stone, Edward Norton and several other A-listers, also won Best Director (Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu), Best Original Screenplay (Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu) and Best Cinematography (Emmanuel Lubezki).

First-time nominee Eddie Redmayne won Best Actor for The Theory of Everything, the film based on Stephen Hawking. Julianne Moore, as predicted won Best Actress for Still Alice, a heart-wrenching tale about an Alzheimer’s sufferer. J.K. Simmons (Whiplash) and Patricia Arquette (Boyhood) won Best Supporting Actor and Actress awards.

The Art of Acceptance Speeches

It was the night of poignant acceptance speeches. Graham Moore, winner of the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Imitation Game, shared his struggles growing up and the message: “Stay weird. Stay different.”

J.K. Simmons invited everyone who was “lucky enough to have a parent or two alive on this planet,” to call them, citing family as his inspiration.

Patricia Arquette’s speech supporting equality led to rousing reactions from several of Hollywood’s elite including Shirley Maclaine and Meryl Streep.

The Performance that Brought the Place to Tears

John Legend and Common’s “Glory,” from the Selma soundtrack won for Best Original Song, but their performance was so much bigger than the award.

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