Oscar night filled with uncharacteristically long acceptance speeches

Was it just us, or were last night’s Oscar speeches a little on the long side?

In past years, the producers of the show have been notoriously stingy with the time allotted for winners’ acceptance speeches, often attempting to “play off” the stars with music when their remarks went on too long or cutting off mics altogether when multiple people won an award.

Not so on Sunday night, though, when even the winners of the most obscure categories were given ample time to deliver their thanks. Many of Sunday night’s speeches also seemed longer because after their names were announced, it took the winners around 40 to 60 seconds to get from their seat to the stage.

Best Supporting Actor winner Jared Leto (“Dallas Buyers Club”) kicked off the night with what felt like an extremely lengthy acceptance speech. Thanking his mother, brother, director, and his band 30 Seconds to Mars (not to mention giving a shout-out to the people of Ukraine and Venezuela), the two-minute and 24-second speech set the tone for the Oscar night speeches.

Best Supporting Actress winner Lupita Nyong'o (“12 Years a Slave”) rescued the floundering first half of the show with an inspiring acceptance speech that lasted just a hair over two minutes. Nyong’o’s closing remark -- “No matter where you’re from, your dreams are valid” -- is sure to go down in Oscar history as one of the most endearing acceptance speech moments ever.

The longest acceptance speech of the night belonged to Best Actress winner Cate Blanchett (“Blue Jasmine”). The three-minute and 16-second speech started out strong with a few jokes, enthusiastic shout outs to her fellow nominees, and a thank you to controversial writer/director Woody Allen. But then it slowly dragged on into Blanchett talking about her theatre company and the Australian acting community.

Best Actor winner Matthew McConaughey (“Dallas Buyers Club”) had a slightly shorter acceptance speech than Blanchett, but not by much. At three minutes and four seconds, McConaughey’s speech capped off what many have been calling the “McConaissance.” Thanking God, his father, his director, and wife, before talking about how his hero is always the man he wants to be in ten years time, McConaughey closed out the thank yous with his trademark: “Alright, alright, alright. Keep on livin’!”

But the real favourite online was the musical thank you list delivered by Best Original Song winners Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez for “Let It Go” from “Frozen.” The Twittersphere had been rooting for “Frozen” to win in the category, and the charming (and rhyming) acceptance speech given by Anderson-Lopez and Lopez was the icing on the cake.

Also unusual was the fact that almost no one was played off by music during the show. The only really noticeable cut off of the entire night was when Alfonso Cuarón and Mark Sanger won the Best Editing trophy for “Gravity.” Sanger spoke so long that when Cuarón came forward to speak the mic had already been turned off. Thankfully, the “Gravity” director had plenty of time to speak later in the evening when he won the coveted Best Director Academy Award.

Though the winner’s speeches may have seemed long last night, even the longest was still far shy of the Oscar record. At the 1942 show, Best Actress winner Greer Garson (“Mrs. Miniver”) delivered a five-and-a-half minute speech -- the longest Oscar acceptance speech ever, according to the Guinness Book of Records. And the shortest Oscar speech ever? 1963’s Best Supporting Actress winner Patty Duke ("The Miracle Worker") to-the-point two word speech: "Thank you."

If only more of Sunday night’s Oscar winners could have been so concise!