The Oscar nominees luncheon is one of award season’s best events for celeb-watching. No awards, just all the nominees vibing after months of promoting their respective films (some more than others). The climax of the luncheon is a chaotic group shot of the 2024 class. One by one, each person gets called up to take the stands to get placed, receiving various levels of applause depending on how many friends and fans they have in the room. Naturally, after being placed, they move to stand next to whoever they want anyway (as seen in the accompanying video footage). The Academy takes a slew of pictures, ultimately sending out one class photo. With only one photo shared, somebody’s bound to look bad — they may be Oscar nominees, but they’re not wizards — which makes it all the more fun to examine with a magnifying glass. The winners of this year’s photo aren’t the ones who looked the best but rather the ones who made us squint and wonder, What was that person up to?
The Left Side
The left side is the quirkiest bunch. From Yorgos Lanthimos’s (director, Poor Things) deadpan in the top center to Jacqueline West’s (costumer, Killers of the Flower Moon) smile-blink two people to the right. Sandra Hüller (actress, Anatomy of a Fall) is standing right next to her European co-worker Tarn Willers (the one in the hat), who is nominated in sound design for the Hüller-starring The Zone of Interest. Some people are making intentional poses, but Willers’s initially strange hand gesture is just a feature of him sticking his hands in his pockets, which, it turns out, he is wont to do. Those blue spikes poking out next to Hüller belong to Godzilla Minus One director Takashi Yamazaki, who is holding a Godzilla action figure.
Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling are stacked right on top of each other. They are both pros (together they have seven acting nominations) who know exactly where to look. At the bottom right of the frame, take a look at what a first-time nominee will do in this overwhelming situation. Right next to veteran attendee Dean Zupancic (sound, Maestro) is Justine Triet (director and screenwriter, Anatomy of a Fall), who, it appears, could not find the camera.
Two rows above Triet is Cord Jefferson, who is nominated as the screenwriter of American Fiction, which he also directed. We deem Jefferson’s smile to be the brightest in the room. Best pose, meanwhile, would obviously go to Jack Fisk (production design, Killers of the Flower Moon), who’s way over on the left and is displaying a Tyra-approved “hand on hip.†He’s next to Willie D. Burton (sound, Oppenheimer), who deserves “widest tie.â€
The Center
In the center are the professionals. Margot Robbie (producer, Barbie) is the most eye-catching. A genius marketer, she’s obviously wearing pink, complimenting producer Jean Tsein (Island in Between) nicely. Lily Gladstone (actress, Killers of the Flower Moon) is the only thing separating Martin Scorsese (director, Killers of the Flower Moon) and Christopher Nolan (director, Oppenheimer) from physically fighting (we’d bet on Marty — he’s scrappier), and Laura Karpman, who wrote the score to American Fiction, is wearing two pairs of glasses and still closing her eyes.
Lori McCoy-Bell (makeup, Maestro) in the bottom left-hand corner has the unfortunate onus of standing up front, while not having any idea what to do with her hands. Been there, queen. In the upper right of the frame is Jacqueline Durran (costume design, Barbie), turned entirely to the side to look at Mark Ruffalo (supporting actor, Poor Things). We’d bet that Ruffalo just said something funny to Emily Blunt (supporting actress, Oppenheimer), who’s on Durran’s other side. Maybe it’s about how Blunt is in cerulean.
But there’s a bigger story to tell here. In the upper left of the frame, you can spot Anatomy of a Fall co-writer Arthur Harari cracking up to the point where he’s rubbing his eyes. Or he’s sneezing. Greta Gerwig, nominated for the screenplay of Barbie, is eyeing the situation unfolding to her right (and our left) with leery eyes and a plastered-on smile. Paul Giamatti stands right next to Harari, holding in laughter. We would be smiling like that too if the guy next us just sneezed.
The Right Side
The right side is kind of a ragtag bunch, and it’s by far the most unevenly spaced crew. It was filled in first, so perhaps this group wants to get things over with. Matthew Libatique (cinematographer, Maestro), all the way on the right, is spicing by doing a flared hand gesture that he also trotted out on the red carpet. Nothing better than jazz hands to show off your painted nails.
With apologies to Willers, the coolest guy with the sickest hat at this year’s luncheon is Edward Lachman (cinematography, El Conde), who is sitting right next to Da’vine Joy Randolph (supporting actress, The Holdovers) in the lower left-hand corner.
The most exciting duo in this crew is Diane Warren and Sterling K. Brown, who are at the very top of the frame and look like wedding-cake toppers, side by side. Brown was originally placed on a lower level, but deserted his assignment to go stand next to Warren. The two haven’t worked together since 2017’s Marshall, so we’re guessing this is an event-based friendship. Either way, with apologies to Brown’s wife of 18 years, these two are now the best couple of the 2024 awards season.
This post has been updated with the information that Sterling K. Brown and Diane Warren worked together on Marshall.