A self-portrait of host Ellen DeGeneres and stars including Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper taken during Hollywood's annual Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday quickly became the most shared photo ever on Twitter.

"We got an email from Twitter and we crashed and broke Twitter. We have made history," DeGeneres said shortly after access to the social media site was disrupted due to sharing of her star-studded picture.

Kevin Spacey, Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and new Oscar winner Lupita Nyong'o, also crowded into the picture, which was snapped by Cooper after DeGeneres mingled with stars seated in the audience.

"I've never tweeted before!" Streep, a three-time Oscar winner, gushed after Cooper snapped the photo with a mobile device.

DeGeneres shared the selfie via her Twitter feed. It was shared, or retweeted, more than 2 million times in some two hours during the broadcast of the 86th annual Academy Awards.

The photo surpassed the record set by US President Barack Obama's "Four More Years" re-election victory shot. The picture of Obama hugging first lady Michelle Obama on election night in 2012 has been retweeted more than 780,000 times.

Other widely shared photos from Sunday's Oscars included a DeGeneres selfie with Liza Minnelli, taken after the host made a biting comment about the appearance of the veteran actress and Broadway star.

A separate photo taken by a member of the audience showed Minnelli trying to get into DeGeneres' now famous Oscar selfie.