At a luncheon for Oscar nominees held Tuesday afternoon in Beverly Hills, the “Come See Me in the Good Light” director Ryan White could barely believe the exalted company he was in.
“I’m a massive Oscar nerd,” said the documentary filmmaker, who received his first nomination last month. “I had every Oscar book growing up and I could tell you any winner from any year, so to get to come to this is a childhood dream.”
His full-circle moment was moving, but I still had a follow-up. What 1973 film won best picture?, I asked, testing him. He grinned. “‘The Sting,’” he said.
This annual luncheon, held at the Beverly Hilton, is an awards-season favorite that allows nominees like sound designers and makeup artists to mingle on equal footing with A-listers like Timothée Chalamet and Emma Stone. Though this luncheon couldn’t boast a novelty on the order of Messi, the Border collie from “Anatomy of a Fall” who captivated the room of nominees two years ago, there was still plenty of Hollywood firepower on display.
Before lunch was served, Steven Spielberg coaxed the “One Battle After Another” director Paul Thomas Anderson to pose next to an oversized Oscar statuette, while the newly installed Disney chief executive Josh D’Amaro sipped white wine and surveyed the ballroom full of big names. The two tallest contenders of the season — the “Frankenstein” star Jacob Elordi and the “Sirat” director Oliver Laxe — met up for an embrace, and I could sense both men’s relief that, for once, they didn’t have to stoop.
Elordi and Laxe are both first-time nominees, but the director Jared Bush is an animated-feature winner (for “Encanto”) who is nominated once more, this time for “Zootopia 2.” After congratulating him, I said the will-they-or-won’t-they tension between the franchise’s fox and bunny leads had become unbearable.
“They need to kiss,” I insisted.
“You’ve got to wait until No. 3 for that,” he replied.
The Neon studio head Tom Quinn, who arranged Messi’s appearance, had also hoped to bring the 79-year-old Brazilian actress Tania Maria to this year’s luncheon. A scene-stealer in “The Secret Agent” and a hometown hero back in Brazil, Maria may make it to next month’s Oscar ceremony if she is in good health, studio reps told me.
Other notable names who were unable to attend included the nominated actors Sean Penn and Renate Reinsve as well as the co-writer of “It Was Just An Accident,” Mehdi Mahmoudian, who was recently arrested in Iran for signing a letter that criticized the regime there.
At my table sat an eclectic group of nominees, like the supporting-actor contender Stellan Skarsgard (“Sentimental Value”), the casting nominee Gabriel Domingues (“The Secret Agent”), and the writer-director Greg Kwedar, who earned an adapted-screenplay nomination for “Train Dreams” a year after getting the same nomination for “Sing Sing.” Kwedar confessed he was a “bundle of nerves” last season until he began to view his fellow contenders less as competition and more as his cohort.
“Then it’s like the gauze comes off your eyes and you see the privilege of this,” he said, gesturing around the ballroom. “It’s the gift of people you looked up to your whole life who are now your peers.”
After noshing on a meal of miso chicken and rice pilaf, the nominees were summoned one by one to the center of the ballroom for a supersized class photo. The first name announced was the supporting-actor nominee Delroy Lindo, who earned some of the afternoon’s loudest cheers. His “Sinners” director Ryan Coogler and co-stars Michael B. Jordan and Wunmi Mosaku were just as enthusiastically received.
Is that a sign of momentum or a reflection of the fact that “Sinners,” the most-nominated film in Oscar history, had more representatives in the room than any other contender? We’ll soon see, though other nominees who drew a big reaction included Chalamet (“Marty Supreme”) and the supporting-actor nominee Benicio Del Toro (“One Battle After Another”).
While no awards are handed out during the luncheon, attendees do get to pick up an official certificate of nomination on their way out. Where does three-time nominee Domee Shi keep all her certificates?
“I am so embarrassed,” said the “Elio” director. “In a drawer.”
Is it at least a nice drawer?
“No,” she said, laughing. “But you know what? I’ll frame this one. I will take better care of them, I promise.”
Kyle Buchanan is a pop culture reporter and also serves as The Projectionist, the awards season columnist for The Times.
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