Winners, losers, and the people who just randomly showed up: an overview of the 2015 Academy Awards. For the past two months while celebrities, singers/songwriters, and actors were on the edge of their seats over the award shows, everybody was waiting for the Oscars. This year marks 87 years since the first Academy Awards.

The Winners: Birdman, or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance, won for the Best Picture Oscar. In Birdman, Riggan Thomson, an aging actor who played a super hero when he was younger, returns to the theater to try to improve his acting credentials. Birdman won several awards including: Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Cinematography.

Julianne Moore won Best Actress in a Leading Role Oscar for her role in Still Alice. In Still Alice, Alice, a university professor in her fifties, starts to forget common parts of her life and is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s. The movie shows the struggle of people with Alzheimer’s.

Eddie Redmayne won Best Actor in a Leading Role for his role in the Theory of Everything. The Theory of Everything is the story of the life of Steven Hawking (Eddie Redmayne) and his wife Jane Hawking (Felicity Jones). It goes back before Hawking was diagnosed with ALS and continues until the present.

J.K. Simmons won the Oscar for Actor in a Supporting Role for his movie Whiplash. Whiplash features a student drummer (Miles Teller) who got into a cut-throat music school and whose dreams of greatness were fueled by his ferocious teacher (J.K. Simmons).

Patricia Arquette won the Oscar for Actress in a Supporting Role for her role in Boyhood. Boyhood is a film following the life of a boy, Mason, from childhood to entering college. The film was in progress for twelve years as the cameras followed the same boy as he actually grew up. It was a hopeful for Best Picture.

Graham Moore won for Best Adapted Screenplay for his work on The Imitation Game. He spoke about the pain he felt as an adolescent (16) driving him to try to commit suicide. Moore called for young people who felt like outsiders to stay weird. He said, “When I was 16 years old, I tried to kill myself because I felt weird and I felt different and I felt like I did not belong. And now I’m standing here, and I would like for this moment to be for that kid out there who feels like she’s weird or she’s different or she doesn’t fit anywhere: Yes, you do. I promise you do.”

This year was a first for many things. It was the 70th anniversaries of The Sound of Music which gave the world a chance to hear the amazing voice of Lady Gaga singing classically. “Glory”, the piece that won Best Song, was performed by John Legend and Common who spoke about the importance of equal rights for people of all colors afterwards. For most of the nation it was the first time seeing Neil Patrick Harris with only his boxers on. Neil Patrick Harris also predicted the outcome of the Oscars which was kind of impossible but apparently Octavia Spencer watched the box containing his secret picks for the entire show.

Yet it was also a repeat of themes from Oscar past. Neil Patrick Harris did a classic singing opening with an attractive singing actress that joins him half way through. This year it was the lovely Anna Kendrick who plays Cinderella in the movie Into the Woods. From the other award shows Eddie Redmayne for The Theory of Everything and Julianne Moore for Still Alice were the favorites for the Best Actor and Best Actress in a leading role.

Awkward moments: John Travolta came and presented with Adele Menzellie (or sorry Idina Menzel). Although he made up for totally mispronouncing her name last year and the two of them joked about it, Travolta did some weird touching of Menzel’s face which made journalists liken him to the creepy Uncle John.