This year’s nominees for the 98th Academy Awards gathered under one roof Tuesday afternoon for the annual Oscars luncheon at the Beverly Hilton Hotel — a rare pause in the relentless awards-season sprint where competitors became colleagues and rivals turned conversationalists. It is, in many ways, the last truly “happy” day of the season. Everyone in the room is still a winner in the most literal sense: They made it inside.
Held within the Wilshire Ballroom, the luncheon is a carefully controlled logistical ritual. Nominees arrive through a no-frills process in which personal publicists are notably absent unless attending as a plus-one. Table assignments are randomized. There are no
→ Continue reading at Variety
