The Academy Awards celebrated cinema for the 86th time on March 2. The ceremony was both intimate and spectacular, with Ellen DeGeneres hosting quite marvelously. The 86th Academy Awards made history with Alfonso Cuaron becoming the first Latino director to win for best directing. Also, Steve McQueen became the first black director to ever win an Oscar for Best Picture and Ellen DeGeneres took the most retweeted and shared selfie in the history of the world.

The ceremony was definitely diverse. Not just in terms of ethnic, gender and sexual representation but also in terms of film genre. Indeed, sci-fi, dark comedy, historical and Sundance-indie films were represented with established directors standing alongside newcomers.

The absence of Joel and Ethan Cohen’s “Inside Llewyn Davis” was felt, it was one of the best films of 2013 and was cruelly snubbed (especially Best Actor and Best original song) but overall the ceremony celebrated a prolific year in cinema.

“Gravity” won most of the main awards including thus Best Directing, Cinematography, Sound, Music and Visual Effects. Gravity and 12 Years A Slave (Best Picture, supporting actress, adapted screenplay) were the great winners of this night.

It takes an equal amount of corniness and grace to host such a big event and Ellen DeGeneres did a good job. She disarmed any discomfort from the beginning.

“Possibility number one: ‘12 Years a Slave’ wins best picture. Possibility number two: You’re all racists,” DeGeneres said.

This was welcome by a roar of laughter and the show could begin. This omen didn’t prevent suspense to happen. Interestingly, one of the most scrutinized categories was for best actress in a supporting role. While most bets tended towards Jennifer Lawrence, it was first time nominee Lupita Nyong’o who won. This was Lupita Nyong’o‘s night. After dancing with Pharrell Williams and taking a selfie alongside Hollywood royalty, she gracefully went up on stage and delivered the most beautiful speech of the night in her Nairobi Blue dress. Twitter actually broke due to the win, that’s how powerful Nyong’o is. She dedicated her speech to Patsey, the enslaved young woman she portrayed in “12 Years A Slave.” Hopefully we’ll get to see her in more movies if Hollywood starts to embrace different actors, narratives and stories.

Despite the heavy themes of the movies nominated (corruption, AIDS, slavery, space, etc.) the ceremony itself was spontaneous and light-hearted. It was a smart decision to start the show with Pharrell Williams’s addictive “Happy” which was nominated for Best Original Song. We got to see Williams in the biggest hat ever, as well as Meryl Streep dancing.  The night was in that tone, celebrative. Pizza was ordered, Betty Milder cried, and there were a lot of standing ovations.

The memoriam segment showed that a lot of great people died this year, and it sadly didn’t mention French director Alain Resnais, who passed away March 1.

The ceremony ended with Will Smith presenting the award for Best Picture to “12 Years A Slave.” Brad Pitt cried, and Steve McQueen who is often described as “stern” and “difficult” literally jumped of joy on the Dolby Theater stage. It was a great moment, spontaneous and happy.