Parasite shocked and delighted the world on Sunday by claiming four major Oscars, including best picture. Its director, Bong Joon Ho, ended the night by squatting on a riser backstage and declaring: "What the fuck is going on!?"

Brad Pitt rode a wave of mellowness to his first acting Oscar. Eminem surprised everyone by reprising "Lose Yourself," 18 years after it won best song. Joaquin Phoenix came back shaken, and Renée Zellweger was dizzy with joy.

The Academy gave Vanity Fair a crew badge, allowing us to free-roam around the wings of the stage on Sunday night—and these are just a few of the moments we witnessed as the night unfolded.

Here's how it all went down, from start to finish:

The Build-Up

As the countdown to the show began, the actual Oscar statuettes arrived surreptitiously. The elevator to the still relatively empty backstage area opened, and a man pushing a cart stacked with the heavy figurines wheeled it out and steered it to the wings of the stage, stopping just behind the curtain.

By Anthony Breznican

The man shepherding the Oscars was Jimmy Wright, house propmaster. “Tell him how long you’ve been doing this,” stage manager Gary Natoli goaded Wright when I asked his name. “My first year was 1976,” Wright said, smiling sheepishly. “I’ve been doing it ever since, off and on a few years.”

Moments later, the first star sightings began. Mindy Kaling and B.J. Novak headed one direction while Sandra Oh crossed paths with them heading the other way, stopping to lavish compliments on each others gowns. Steve Martin, holding a yogurt parfait that was being served to guests, perused the corridor asking if anyone had seen Chris Rock.

Beanie Feldstein swept in from the red carpet with a blue ACLU ribbon affixed to the strap of her black and white sequined gown. And Elton John arrived secretly, through the loading dock, not yet dressed for his appearance. (He was in an apparently custom green and red track suit with the phrase “Gucci Loves Elton” emblazoned on the back.

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