The red carpet was a black and gold ball. Many stars shimmered in neutrals while a few stunned in black and navy.
Best supporting actress nominee Jennifer Lawrence stood out in red. And yes she did trip and fall again this -- on the red carpet, not the stage.
Watching the red carpet from a front row seat was 17-year-old Los Gatos resident Alec Cerutti. Cerutti wants to work in movies. That's why when the make a wish foundation asked him what he wanted, he asked to go to the Oscars.
"At first, I didn't really feel comfortable asking for something because I felt like so many other people could really need that wish a lot more than I did," he said.
Cerutti is a senior at Saint Francis High School in Mountain View. He just finished chemo last month, his treatment for bone cancer.
"So far it's been beautiful and awe inspiring," Cerutti said of his Oscars experience.
Speaking of inspiring, Jared Leto went straight for the heart when accepting the Oscar for best supporting actor for his role in "Dallas Buyers Club."
He thanked his mom.
"I just want to say, thank you mom for always teaching me to dream," he said.
His co-star Matthew McConaughey's massive weight loss earned him an Oscar too.
"To that I say alright, alright, alright," the actor said, a nod to his first movie role.
Feeling the weight of an Oscar for the first time was Lupita Nyong'o -- best supporting actress for "12 Years A Slave."
"It doesn't escape me for one moment that so much joy in my life is thanks to so much pain in someone else's, and so I want to salute the spirit of Patsy for her guidance," she said.
"12 Years A Slave" also won Best Picture. Steve McQueen's slavery odyssey, based on Solomon Northup's 1853 memoir, has been hailed as a landmark corrective to the movie industry's long omission of slavery stories and years of whiter tales like 1940 best-picture winner "Gone With the Wind."
The best actress award went to Cate Blanchett, who played crazy all over San Francisco, Marin and Oakland, for "Blue Jasmine."
"To the audiences who went to see it and perhaps those of us in the industry who are still foolishly clinging to the idea that female films with women at the center are niche experiences. They are not. Audiences want to see them. In fact they earn money," she said in her acceptance speech.
"Gravity" still triumphed as the night's top award-winner. Cleaning up in technical categories, it earned seven Oscars including best director for Alfonso Cuaron. The Mexican filmmaker is the category's first Latino winner.
Disney's global hit "Frozen" won best animated film, marking - somewhat remarkably - the studio's first win in the 14 years of the best animated feature category. (Pixar, which Disney owns, has regularly dominated.) The film's hit single, "Let It Go," won best original song.
Throughout the show, DeGeneres kept things interesting. Her goal of setting a retweet record with her star-studded selfie was achieved before the Oscars telecast was even over.
During a comic bit, the Oscars host prevailed upon actor Bradley Cooper to take a picture with her and several other stars crowding around, including Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence, Kevin Spacey, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt.
Long before midnight Sunday, the photo had been retweeted more than 2 million times, breaking a record set by President Barack Obama with the picture of him hugging First Lady Michelle Obama after his re-election in 2012.
All and all it was an exciting night, especially for ABC7 News reporter Katie Marzullo. It was her first time covering the Oscars and her red carpet dress was on loan from San Francisco designer Azadeh. She was styled by Consuelo Moreno.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
For a full list of winners, click here.
