The ceremony was televised in the United States by ABC, and produced by Neil Meron and Craig Zadan and directed by Hamish Hamilton.

[8] In related events, the academy held its 5th annual Governors Awards ceremony at the Grand Ballroom of the Hollywood and Highland Center on November 16, 2013.

[19] Lupita Nyong'o was the sixteenth Oscar acting winner to win for a debut film performance and the ninth Best Supporting Actress recipient to achieve this feat.

[19] Best Original Song co-winner Robert Lopez became the youngest individual to win an Academy, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Award and the twelfth person overall to earn these accolades.

"[29] Furthermore, actress and comedian Tina Fey, who co-hosted the 70th Golden Globe Awards more than a month earlier with fellow Saturday Night Live alumnus Amy Poehler, told Huffington Post columnist Mike Ryan that she would reject any offer to host an Oscar telecast commenting, "I just feel like that gig is so hard.

[31] They explained their decision to bring back DeGeneres as host saying, "As a longtime friend, we had always hoped to find a project for us to do together and nothing could be more exciting than teaming up to do the Oscars.

"[34] To coincide with the theme, AMPAS presented an exhibition in the lobby of its Beverly Hills headquarters titled "The Oscars Celebrate Movie Heroes".

[37] Filmmaker Paul Feig produced and directed a one-minute trailer promoting the event featuring DeGeneres and 250 dancers dancing and lip-synching to the song "The Walker" by rock band Fitz and the Tantrums.

The team consisted of six young film students from colleges across the country selected by AMPAS whose role was to deliver Oscar statuettes to the presenters during the gala.

Only Frozen (1st), Despicable Me 2 (3rd), Gravity (7th), The Croods (14th), Captain Phillips (29th), American Hustle (30th), and The Wolf of Wall Street (42nd) were nominated for Best Picture, Best Animated Feature or any of the directing, acting or screenwriting awards.

[44] The other top 50 box office hits that earned nominations were Iron Man 3 (2nd), The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (8th), Star Trek Into Darkness (11th), The Great Gatsby (17th), Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa (31st), The Lone Ranger (38th), and Saving Mr. Banks (48th).

[44] Prior to the introduction of the Academy Awards for Technical Achievement montage, DeGeneres and several ceremony attendees such as Bradley Cooper, Jared Leto, Jennifer Lawrence, Julia Roberts, Kevin Spacey, Meryl Streep, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Channing Tatum, Lupita Nyong'o, and Peter Nyong'o (Lupita's brother) participated in a group selfie.

[50] Afterwards, Menzel reportedly printed up satirical playbills that promoted her name as Adele Dazeem, noting her past work in Nert (Rent), Wicked-ly (Wicked) and Farfignugen (Frozen).

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette television critic Rob Owen wrote, "Ms. DeGeneres brought predictable respectability to Sunday's 86th Academy Awards.

"[56] Tim Goodman of The Hollywood Reporter said, "It was a turgid affair, badly directed, poorly produced and featuring an endless string of either tired or wince-inducing moments by DeGeneres, who, by the last 30 or so minutes, seemed to have given up entirely."

Television critic Matt Roush of TV Guide commented that DeGeneres "made the Oscars' inevitable dull patches felt less painful than usual."

[58] Frazier Moore of the Associated Press lauded DeGeneres's performance writing that, "She seemed to be committed to an unspoken theme for the evening: Humanize Hollywood's glitterati for the viewers.

"[59] Entertainment editor Marlow Stern of The Daily Beast raved, "DeGeneres followed in the footsteps of the most successful awards show hosts—Billy Crystal, the duo of Fey & Poehler, etc.—who have taken advantage of the audience, engaging in gleeful interactions with the plethora of A-listers there (when they're not mocking them).

[65] The following month, the ceremony won one of those nominations for Outstanding Art Direction for a Variety, Nonfiction, Reality, or Reality-Competition Program (Derek McLane, Joe Celli, and Gloria Lamb).

Shortly after Midler finished singing, camera assistant Sarah Jones, who died more than a week prior to the ceremony, was briefly mentioned before the commercial break.