![]() Stay seated, and you’ll witness the seams of a live TV production – instructions to clap as the commercial breaks end, speedy set assemblies for the five musical performances, the overheard camera zooming vertiginously around the room. The official business is segmented by lights-up commercial breaks, during which seat fillers tend to empty chairs left by audience members liable to hang out by the bars for anywhere from five to 55 minutes. In the same way that the Oscars, as an annual awards show, struggles to appeal to both blockbuster fans and film nerds happy to see all the technical categories restored to the telecast, the Oscars, as an in-person event, strikes a weird balance between television production and party. Naturally, everyone waits until the last five minutes to make a mad dash for the seats, and it’s on to the show itself. The energy is nervous and fizzy, wine glasses bottoming up, as an overhead announcer counts down to the telecast in five-minute increments starting 50 minutes in advance. ![]() (I realise later that a striking trio of blonds felt familiar because they are in fact the family of imprisoned Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny, subject of the best documentary winner Navalny.) “Jason Blum!!!” someone shouts over the railing at, I assume, super-producer Jason Blum. No matter – I gaze over the atrium at the starry ground floor, where everyone looks like a handsomer version of people I vaguely know. Several ushers pitch the food and drink on the upper levels, which is confusing at first because there is also a bar and canapes on this level, but this turns out to be a very convenient way to unwittingly get the civilians (me) up and away from the VIPs and then block them from returning down the stairs. Such are the Oscars, it turns out – a lot of chaos outside, a lot of non-celebrity people everywhere and, in a welcome pivot after last year’s incident, a well-oiled, disruption-free machine within.Īfter nearly stepping on Ava DuVernay’s sequined train, I arrive in the great atrium, four levels of constant refreshments, stratified by ticket colour. Post-carpet merge, I watch Zoe Saldana’s husband watch Zoe Saldana take a photo in one of those 360-degree hi-def cameras, as another Oscars usher urges us (civilians) forward, lest we be a “fire hazard”. ![]() The gossamer barricade flutters just enough for me to catch a glimpse of Barry Keoghan, the best supporting actor nominee from The Banshees of Inisherin, mixing among the cadre of stars, staff and press. “To your right, Ana!” I hear through the curtain as I make the less spotlit way into the heart of the event. I’m ushered into the civilian line, a hair’s breadth from the actual red carpet, yet spiritually distant. The walls and ceiling are undulating waves of red fabric, the carpet (controversially) champagne, with imposing gold statuettes signposting the way to the theatre. It’s a theatre next to a Hard Rock Cafe, not necessarily the glamour you’d expect for Hollywood’s biggest night.īut once inside – and yes, after a location move, several Uber requests and 45 minutes of waiting in the “limo” security line in a sea of tinted-out black cars, I did make it in – the mystique hits. One replete with tourists gawking for a glimpse at a celebrity and passersby seemingly confused as to why there are hordes of police cars, but still. This has been written and told to me several times, but it’s still notable – the Oscars are basically held at a mall. My Saint Laurent heels, sourced from a friend’s mom in New York the day prior – which was less than a day after I learned I was going to the Oscars as a last-minute replacement for a reporter with a visa snafu – are beautiful, but not the best for navigating the sidewalks, fences and crowds around Hollywood Boulevard. ![]() (There probably was not a version where Everything Everywhere All at Once, the most nominated film of the evening and by far the most cheered inside the auditorium, didn’t triumph over the ceremony.)īut that’s not how things went, so I found myself on the wrong side of the theatre and unable to call a car that could reach me. In the multiverse of ways my first trip to the Academy Awards could’ve played out, there was a version where I remembered I had a vehicle pass, my Uber made the correct stop and I wasn’t barricaded from the entrance. I t’s two hours before the Oscars begin, and I am running barefoot down the sidewalk a block from the Dolby theatre in Los Angeles.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |