On February 22, the 87 annual Academy Awards took place. Notably, there were debatable winners and controversial nominees as well as a tough race for the Best Actor category. The host of the show this year was Neil Patrick Harris, who has, without fail, hosted nearly every award show there is – the Oscars being at the top of the list. Harris had delightful jokes, and of course, a musical number.

The nominees for the main five categories created a tough race this year. I made my predictions like I do every year, but this year I was more on the fence than usual. The award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role went to J.K. Simmons for Whiplash. I have yet to see this film, but since he won the Golden Globe for it, I expected this.

For Best Actress in a Supporting Role, the Oscar went to Patricia Arquette for Boyhood. This was predictable, although I had expected many more awards for the movie Boyhood, which was shot over the course of twelve years. As for Best Actress, the Academy gave it to Julianne Moore for her role as a woman with Alzheimer’s disease in Still Alice. My money had been on Rosamund Pike for Gone Girl because, well, she killed it (literally), but I was happy to see Moore win and to hear her touching speech about people with Alzheimer’s.

The race for Best Actor was the tightest it has been in years. Bradley Cooper, who was nominated for his third consecutive year, was nominated for American Sniper. There had been much buzz about Michael Keaton in Birdman, but at the end of the night, the Oscar went to Eddie Redmayne for playing Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything. Although Cooper’s performance was believable and riveting, Redmayne’s went beyond the emotional side of an actor and transcended to the physical form, which he played marvelously. The final main category of the night, Best Picture, went to Birdman, a creative and original film, who deserved the biggest award of the night.

With every year’s pool of nominees, there is always an abundance of films that get snubbed. This year it seemed as if there was more debate about the nominees than usual. For example, Selma was only nominated for two categories in which it won Best Original Song. Gone Girl, which had Oscar buzz fluttering around it during its premiere, was not nominated for Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, or Best Picture, only Best Actress. Many have come out to say that the Academy does not have enough diversity and sticks to the same types of movies for their nominees.

Overall, I did not feel that the Oscars truly portrayed all of the films and talent that came out this year. Will the Academy expand its horizons more and include more diversity, or stick to the same cookie cutter outline of its past nominations? Only time will tell, we can always tune in next year to see.