On Sun., Mar. 2, the 86^th Annual Academy Awards, hosted by Ellen DeGeneres at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California, recognized cinema in 2013 from all over the world.

The stars first started appearing on the red carpet at 3 p.m. in dazzling gowns and glamorous suits. Celebrities that stole the spotlight on the red carpet included Lupita N’Yongo in a powder blue Prada dress, Angelina Jolie wearing a shimmery Elie Saab Haute Couture gown, and Jennifer Lawrence in a fitted Christian Dior fire red dress and eye-catching Neil Lane diamond necklace. While many were following the trends of nude shimmery gowns on the red carpet Cate Blanchett dominated the trend in her right-off-the-runway Giorgio Armani gown and Chopard earrings. Female stars made statements with their bold color choices, such as Amy Adams in her deep blue Gucci gown, while the male stars rocked white blazers with accent colored bowties, like Jared Leto in his white tuxedo jacket and red satin bowtie, and Ryan Seacrest in his similar white tuxedo, but with a classic black bowtie and slacks.

Comedian Ellen DeGeneres opened the ceremony with a monologue in which she joked about Jennifer Lawrence’s clumsy slips and falls and Jonah Hill’s raunchy role in Wolf of Wall Street, to get the crowd laughing before introducing the first award to be announced. The show proceeded to award Best Supporting Actor to Jared Leto for Dallas Buyers Club. Best Actor was awarded to Matthew Mcconaughey for Dallas Buyers Club. A very giddy and emotional Lupita Nyong’o gave an inspirational speech about achieving dreams after receiving her award for Best Supporting Actress in 12 Years a Slave. The Best Actress Oscar went to Cate Blanchett for her role in Blue Jasmine. Other Oscar winners included Spike Jonze for Best Original Screenplay for Her, Alfonso Cuaron for Best Director for Gravity, and Paolo Sorrentino for Best Foreign Language Film for The Great Beauty. Gravity collected a series of awards throughout the show—Best Original Score, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing and Best Visual Effects. With Gravity’s sweep of awards and previously won awards (Best Movie at the Australian Film Institue Awards, Best Cinematogrephy at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards, and Best Score at the Critics Choice Awards), it seemed as though it had the Best Picture award in the bag, but 12 Years a Slave took home the Best Picture Oscar.

Musical entertainment was an enticing part of the ceremony. Pharrell sang his new hit single “Happy” and danced with actresses Meryl Streep and Amy Adams. Lead singer of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Karen O., and lead singer of Vampire Weekend, Ezra Koeing, sat on the steps on the theatre stage and sang “The Moon Song” from the film Her. P!nk also made an appearance in a giant red sparkling gown to sing “Somewhere over the Rainbow” during a tribute to The Wizard of Oz.  The post-punk band, U2, sang their tribute song to Nelson Mandela, “Ordinary Love,” in an emotional stage performance. Later, Idina Menzel, the voice of Elsa in Disney’s Frozen, sang the film’s Oscar-winning song “Let It Go.” The artists were phenomenal, but nothing gained more praise from the crowd than Bette Midler singing “The Way We Were” during the memorandum that honored those who worked in film that had passed away in 2013.

The audience was not bored with DeGeneres as the host. She made the audience feel comfortable and even ordered pizza during the telecast for them. DeGeneres made history by being the first Oscars host to bring a pizza party to the stars while the show was airing. Not only did she bring her colleagues pizza, but she also huddled together a bundle of celebrities from the front rows of the audience to take a group selfie and posted it on her Twitter account in hopes of breaking the world record for the most retweets—she succeeded. Her picture caused Twitter to go down for the first 10 minutes after it was posted and has since been referred to as “the most epic selfie of all time.”

The fun did not stop there, after the Wizard of Oz tribute, DeGeneres came out in a Glenda “The Good Witch” costume resulting in a roar of laughter across the room. Her perfect balance of humor and charm made her the perfect host for the Academy Awards.

From singing along to film soundtrack’s to pizza parties, the 86^th annual Academy Awards held memorable moments. Now that this year’s show is over, predictions of next year’s nominees, winners, and hosts are already beginning to circulate. A petition for Ellen DeGeneres to host the 2015 Oscars has already begun.