After the Los Angeles wildfires, the Motion Picture Academy postponed its annual Oscar Nominees Lunch, eventually turning it into evening cocktails and dinner on February 25 in the lobby of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. After mingling and cocktails, Academy photographer Kevin Mazur took the annual nominees photo of some 200 nominees (notably missing: Karla Sofía Gascón), not standing on risers but sitting in bright red seats at the David Geffen Theater. (See the full photo below.)
A gaggle of giggly actresses were having fun in the front row: Zoe Saldaña, Mikey Madison, Monica Barbaro, Cynthia Erivo, and Ariana Grande, while sitting up in the back were Demi Moore, Edward Norton, and Guy Pearce.
Wearing form-fitting black, Timothée Chalamet slipped into the theater just before the photo, while his late-arriving “A Complete Unknown” director James Mangold missed the first set of photos, which were taken again. Up in the seats, Ralph Fiennes sat alone, pensive, much like his character Cardinal Lawrence in “Conclave.”
“Are you ready, Trevor?,” called out the ebullient Erivo to the Academy’s supervising photographer Trevor Totaro.
We missed the usual walk up to the risers, as each name was called out, generating applause. That was the (often quite informative) highlight of the event. This way, there was no applause meter, but the women didn’t have to stand as long on their tippy heels.
During cocktails, nominees walked the red carpet and schmoozed with their colleagues. “The Brutalist” Best Actor frontrunner Adrien Brody engaged in a long conversation with Rita Wilson, a Governor for the Actors Branch. “The Apprentice” Supporting Actor nominee Jeremy Strong greeted Warners’ executive Pamela Abdy, reminding her that they worked together on his breakout “The Big Short.” He auditioned for Adam McKay eight times, he said, for different roles: “It opened a lot of doors.”
Abdy was glad to have worked on the last James Bond film “No Time to Die” when she was at MGM, and had no idea what will happen with Amazon/MGM in charge and Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson out of the picture, the subject of much speculation in Hollywood.
Not surprisingly, Academy CEO Bill Kramer is excited about Conan O’Brien as newbie Oscar host. Jimmy Kimmel is a hard act to follow, but O’Brien “knows how to work the room,” said Kramer.
“Anora” breakout and BAFTA Best Actress winner Mikey Madison seemed a tad anxious about attending her first Oscars. On Friday, she will try on two formal gowns and pick one. “Anora” director Sean Baker stood near his fellow indie nominees, director Brady Corbet and his partner and co-writer Mona Fastvold (“The Brutalist”), while Isabella Rossellini enthusiastically greeted Michael Jackman, a producer of “Conclave.”
Any one of those three films could win on Oscar night. Oscar pundits on hand admitted to sweating over their Oscar predictions, myself included. It will make for some suspense on Sunday.
The 97th Oscars will be held on Sunday, March 2, 2025, at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood and will be televised live on ABC, streamed live on Hulu and airs live in more than 200 territories worldwide.
