Secrets of the Oscars Class Photo

The Oscars class photo is a tradition unlike any other. Every year (quarantine seasons excepted), the Academy invites everyone who’s nominated for an Oscar to a fancy lunch. Most of them show up. Some are dressed to the nines, others can’t be bothered. Then at the end of it, they all take a big class picture, where the grandest of stars rub elbows with humble sound mixers. Each edition brings fascinating juxtapositions and delightful stolen moments. A guy sneezed in this year’s!

How much behind-the-scenes wrangling does it take to produce the class photo? To find out, I spoke to MJ Partlow, who produces the Academy’s special events. “I love this day so much,� she says. “It’s so celebratory — of the film industry and the work and the global talent. It’s a big deal.�

Is there a governing philosophy of how the Oscar class photo is arranged, like tallest to shortest? Or is it just, like, herd everybody and throw them all against the wall? 

When you asked about tallest to shortest, I thought, I wish it was that simple. What happens is, our seating department, they seat the room. Then we pick a table to start and we call them up table by table. The Hilton has three tiers, so you pick where you’re going to start and then follow the flow of the room. You feel the energy in the room, when the nominees know when their turn is next. They’re just waiting for it, like, Oh my God, they just got called. We’re next.

What’s the philosophy of the seating chart?

We have our governors, they host each table. [The governors are the Academy’s version of a corporate board. There are 55 of them; most represent a specific branch.] This year’s luncheon was highly coveted and attended: I believe there’s 209 nominees this year, and I believe we had 189 nominees come. The nominees from the same movie are not seated together.

The thing I love about the photo is how you have short film directors and A-listers, and they’re all jumbled up next to each other. Everybody is together.

That’s truly what we want it to feel like for the day in its entirety. Because everyone is Oscar nominated. That’s so big in their career. They worked their whole lives for that. When do you have that opportunity to experience it with everyone else? Oscar Sunday, there’s so much pressure that day. But the nominee luncheon, they kind of buzz around the room and enjoy themselves.

When it comes to the photo, I see it from the back of the room. When you move people around and you see them interact with each other, they turn to the next person and go, “I’m the nominee for this, and what about you?� It becomes this great moment for all of them. You could be nominated once or you could be nominated seven times, but it should feel different every year.

What are you doing while the photo is being set up?

I’m in the back of the room and I’m looking at the photo unfold, everyone getting into place. What I love to do is just make sure I’ve got everyone covered. You want to be able to see everyone’s face, see their smile, even if someone’s tall or if someone’s short.

I remember the year Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck was nominated. He’s like six-feet-nine, and he’s way in the back. 

When you have someone like Kobe Bryant [who was nominated for, and later won, Best Animated Short at the 2018 ceremony] who was six-six — where is he going to go? We actually had him in a chair in the front. Sometimes, if you put them on a riser, they could look way taller than everyone else, too.

How long does it generally take between getting the first people up on the risers and taking the photo?

There was a time when we did it in about 45 minutes. It took a while. But we’ve got it down to 30 minutes. We’re pretty good now. We’re comfortable, we understand it, and we have stage managers who help from every direction. We don’t ever want to rush the moment, either.

What changes did you make to get it down to 30 minutes from 45?

A few things. We used to have this graduation riser. We’ve been at the Beverly Hilton for about 33 years, and we’ve had the riser for quite a long time. It’s custom, but it’s a graduation riser, right? And there was a time when you could see the Hilton carpet, right there next to the Oscar. It didn’t look right.

Finally, we decided this year to do a full-on set. It is gorgeous, and it’s all white. It’s modernized, if you will, and it is the set piece in the room. So when you’re a nominee, after you’ve done the carpet and you’ve smiled for the press, you walk in and you’re like, “Oh my God, there’s the photo.�

I remember the 2020 one was all white, too.

Yeah. The 2020 one was at the Dolby Ballroom and it was all white and it was long. I’ve been wanting to do it since then in the Beverly Hilton, but we couldn’t figure it out. But this year, we shrank it and then brought it forward. It’s quite beautiful.

What is it like to order around people — especially directors — who are used to being the ones giving instructions?

Thank goodness we have stage managers, and we have our governor, DeVon Franklin, who calls the names. I tell you, they want to be directed that day. For once they’re not taking control. They’re giving in and saying, “You know what? This is my day. I’m going to go with this and just going to do what they want me to do.�

How many shots does the photographer usually take?

I don’t know exactly. DeVon’s up there, and he tells them to look up, and then everyone in the room is taking shots. It’s that picture you never can get when you’re with your full family. People blink, right?

Partlow later followed up over email: “In speaking with our head photographer, the answer is eight to ten clean shots as soon as the host counts down with all the nominees.�

Do people ever lobby you, like, “Don’t use the one where I was blinking�?

Actually, believe it or not, everyone is so gracious and they’re just so happy to be there.

Do you have any favorite memories from this year or in years past, specific moments that stand out as really special?

Every year has its tone. I mean, I love the Kobe year. That was a great year, but that’s a hard one to talk about. I would say this year, probably. We’re pretty proud of our new riser, because we think about the accessibility, making sure that everyone feels included and welcome in the photo, and I think that was a little different with the traditional one we had. The riser and the set itself morphed into this beautiful photo.

Hollywood Dispatch

I was not able to attend this year’s Nominee Luncheon, due to the fact that I live 2,800 miles away. But my colleague Chris Lee was there mixing and mingling with the nominees. After chatting with Partlow, I hit up Chris over Slack to get his impressions of the event. Here’s a lightly edited transcript of our conversation.

What was the vibe like in the room?

One of the more telling things I thought was when they brought each nominee up to the risers for the class photo. Each person was announced one name at a time, which worked as a kind of de facto popularity contest. Everyone got applause; everyone was polite in that regard. But when Paul Giamatti was announced, he got a big surge of extra applause. Same for Lily Gladstone. Like, Colman Domingo didn’t get that. Bradley Cooper certainly didn’t!

Who was the most popular?

Some people worked the room and some people remained aloof — or just got there late. Emma Stone seemed to be hobnobbing more than most A-listers. I saw her over here in a huddle with America Ferrara (she seemed horrified by something America told her), then over there onstage exchanging jokes with Yorgos Lanthimos.

Also, Snoop from Anatomy of a Fall was there. Excuse me, [Neon CEO] Tom Quinn corrected me: The dog’s name is actually Messi. I was more starstruck by him.

Did anything exciting happen that wasn’t caught on-camera?

I had a funny interaction with Wim Wenders. He put his hands on my back, and I turned around and he said, “Oh, I thought you were my friend.� (Only at that point did I realize it was Wim Wenders, because I looked at his name card.) Suddenly it became clear to me he thought I was K�ji Yakusho, star of Perfect Days.

Is your hair as long and flowing as his?

You know it is! [Note: It’s true, I do.]

Finally, did you get to eat the food, and was it good?

Yes. It was terrible! Vegan risotto, with weird giant mushrooms that resembled scallops. Brussels sprouts and baby carrots topped by a drift of spinach (raw). Everyone around me was like, this sucks. A publicist friend chastised me for choosing the vegan option, but every journalist was given the vegan option.

Looking Ahead to the BAFTAs

Over the past five years, BAFTA’s tastes have diverged from its American counterparts’, especially in Best Film, where it has twice gone for the arty directorial achievement over middlebrow crowd-pleasers (Roma over Green Book and Power of the Dog over CODA) and twice eschewed buzzy genre efforts in favor of World War I movies (1917 over Parasite and All Quiet on the Western Front over Everything Everywhere All at Once). But it happens all over the ballot. Last year, the BAFTA acting winners were Austin Butler, Cate Blanchett, Barry Keoghan, and Kerry Condon. None of them repeated the feat at the Oscars.

Which goes to show, if something on Sunday makes you say, “Blimey, guv!,� that doesn’t necessarily mean you should throw out everything you think you know about the Oscars race. The Brits just do things differently. Sometimes, it’s better (like when they pour the milk in first while serving tea) and sometimes it’s worse (like when they eat cake with their hands). Nevertheless, here are three things to watch out for:

1. Will Oppenheimer sweep?
Besides an early scene where our hero tries to poison his Cambridge tutor, Oppenheimer is mostly an American story. Still, there are enough British and Irish among the cast and crew that Oppenheimer should enjoy a hometown advantage this weekend. Since it’s already the far-and-away front-runner, we should prepare for a major haul. Picture, Director, and Supporting Actor feel like givens, and Oppenheimer should challenge in Actor, Adapted Screenplay, and a bunch of craft categories, too. Could it go 13-for-13? The biggest test will be in Supporting Actress, where Team Oppenheimer must cross their fingers and hope voters finally hand Emily Blunt a trophy at the fourth time of asking.

2. Who’s winning Original Screenplay?
The Oscars’ Original Screenplay category feels like a three-horse race between Anatomy of a Fall, The Holdovers, and Past Lives. Since the WGA pushed its awards until after the Oscars, BAFTA is our only big writing precursor this year. Thankfully, the Brits nominated all three of them, so Sunday’s result will ideally bring some clarity to the race. Except there’s one potential wrinkle: Barbie is also nominated in Original Screenplay at the BAFTAs. If the pastel-hued comedy — which filmed in the U.K. — does triumph, we’ll be back to having no idea who’s in the lead for the Oscar.

3. Can Sandra Hüller surprise in Best Actress?
The Hüll Hive has pinpointed Best Actress as a place for a possible BAFTA surprise. Because Lily Gladstone wasn’t nominated, and the Brits seemed to like Anatomy of a Fall quite a bit, the German actress figures to be the strongest challenger to Emma Stone. A Teutonic surprise would make for a nice treat in a season that’s in need of all the unpredictability it can get. (However, I’m skeptical that Hüller would be able to ride a BAFTA win all the way to the Oscars stage. Stone and Gladstone are just too strong, and while Hüller gives a great performance in Anatomy of a Fall, she doesn’t transform, play a real person, or get grievously ill.)

Correction: The article previously stated there are 64 governors of the Academy’s corporate board. There are 55.