Watch it: Race beat space on Oscar night

"No matter where you’re from, your dreams are valid”.

These words, from Oscar-winner Lupita Nyong’o, had me in tears.

She was a worthy winner as Best Supporting Actress in 12 Years a Slave, the movie which scooped Best Picture — just as I had hoped. 

Lupita’s win was a highlight of the 86th annual Academy Awards, which were filled with fun and laughter but, strangely enough, few surprises.

Ellen DeGeneres hosted the event and was hilarious. Her monologue was fast and dirty and had me cracking up the whole time.

She made dirty jokes and, of course, made fun of actors. Referring to Jonah Hill being naked in Wolf of Wall Street, DeGeneres said: “You showed us something in that film which I haven’t seen for a very, very long time”.

Her ability to get the audience involved was awesome, as were her totally random bits, which included ordering pizza for the audience and taking a group selfie with A-listers including Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Lupita Nyong’o, Nyong’o’s brother Peter, Kevin Spacey, Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Channing Tatem and Jared Leto.

The selfie, taken with a Samsung Galaxy, was retweeted 1.7 million times is less than an hour and caused the site to go down for 20 minutes with DeGeneres joking she “broke” Twitter. Poor Liza Minnelli was seen in a shot from behind trying to get into the photo.

This was the most glamorous get-together of the awards season and all the stars came out to play and the fashion was phenomenal.

My girl-crush Lupita wore a custom baby blue Prada dress with a gold headband that made her look like Cinderella. She was the princess attending her ball.

Many commentators have suggested that with such a flat chest, she shouldn’t have worn the dress, but I thought she looked fabulous from the moment she got out of her limo.

White jackets seemed to be a trend for the men as Jared Leto, Matthew McCoughnahey and Ryan Seacrest all turned up in white.

Leto wore a red bowtie with his jacket as he accepted the award for Best Supporting Actor. His co-star McCoughnahey picked up the award for Best Actor, in Dallas Buyer’s Club.

Both gave beautiful speeches and acknowledged AIDS victims — a crucial theme of Dallas Buyers Club.

Cate Blanchett won the Best Actress category for her role in Blue Jasmine. She wore an ethereal, skin-toned Armani Prive gown with sequins and jewels. In photos, the dress falls flat but in motion, it was stunning.

Jennifer Lawrence and Amy Adams were nominated for Best Supporting Actress  and Best Actress respectively for American Hustle but neither won. Coincidence or not, they both wore very blah dresses. Adams was the better out of the two with a navy Gucci gown she picked herself. It fitted her like a dream but was very plain. Lawrence wore a red, strapless Dior gown with peplum. It was boring and I expected so much more from her.

Aside from the fashion and the awards, an early feel-good moment happened when Pharrell Williams, sporting what TV pundits quickly dubbed a ‘Bermuda tux’, performed his hit Happy — remember the Bermuda version? — and got audience participation from Lupita, Meryl and Amy Adams.

All three ladies got down and danced with him. It was awesome!

A big night, too, for the space thriller Gravity, which pulled no fewer than seven Oscars. But the most coveted of all — Best Picture, was won by 12 Years a Slave.