Oscar nominees gathered at their customary luncheon on Tuesday to celebrate

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“Frankenstein” star Jacob Elordi, at 6-foot-5 easy to spot from across the ballroom, leaned down to hug Teyana Taylor, a supporting actress Oscar nominee for “One Battle After Another.” Nearby, her co-star Leonardo DiCaprio caught up with Steven Spielberg, who directed him 24 years ago in “Catch Me If You Can,” while “Sentimental Value” filmmaker Joachim Trier huddled with “One Battle’s” Paul Thomas Anderson, a fellow directing nominee. In the middle of it all, songwriter Diane Warren paused to take a selfie, still evidently enjoying the giddy thrill of being in a room full of fellow hopefuls even after 17 times.

In all, 203 of this year’s 230 Academy Award nominees gathered Tuesday at the Beverly Hilton Hotel for the annual nominees luncheon, a brief moment of campaign-free conviviality amid the churn of awards season. As flashbulbs followed the most famous faces, major stars like Timothée Chalamet, Emma Stone and Kate Hudson rubbed elbows and shared champagne toasts with lesser-known nominees from categories like animation, sound and live-action short before lining up for the annual class photo.

With the Oscars just weeks away on March 15, the long-running gathering — a ritual dating back to 1982 and returning this year after being canceled in 2025 because of the Los Angeles wildfires — offered the nominees a welcome stretch of easygoing mingling, largely free of competition. The reprieve is short-lived: Voting begins on Feb. 26, when the brutal math of awards season will reassert itself, meaning roughly 80% of them will head home on Oscar night empty-handed.

Kate Hudson, a lead actress nominee for “Song Sung Blue,” at the 2026 Oscar nominees luncheon at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)

For first-time contenders, the luncheon carried a particular rush. Christalyn Hampton, a co-director of the documentary short “The Devil Is Busy,” which follows a day at an abortion clinic in Atlanta, said she was excited to meet “Sinners” director Ryan Coogler, whose period vampire thriller leads the field with a record 16 nominations.

“We’re two African American directors nominated this year — I think that’s pretty historic,” said Hampton, a former professional dancer whose first directing credit has landed her an Oscar nod. “Flying back and forth from Atlanta has been a bit exhausting, but to be in this moment with all these incredible filmmakers — you can’t complain.”

Still, even inside the awards-season bubble, the turmoil surrounding the movie business,the country and world beyond it was hard to ignore. As attendees tucked into their chicken, more than a few discussions drifted to whether Netflix or Paramount would prevail in their attempts to acquire Warner Bros. and what either scenario might portend for the future of movies.

In her remarks, academy president Lynette Howell Taylor acknowledged the questions many nominees have been asking themselves amid industry contraction, political volatility and global conflict. “The art you create is vital,” Howell Taylor told the crowd. “I know many of us ask ourselves, ‘Should we be doing something else? Should we be doing something differently? Should we be doing more?’ The answer to that is personal. But what I do know is this: What you are doing is not easy and it is so needed.”

She praised the resilience of filmmakers who have endured strikes, dangerous political environments and even war zones. “To not make your films, to not tell your stories, is to give in,” she said. “And there is not one of you in this room who has been willing to do that.”

That tension was felt especially sharply by Sara Khaki, co-director (with Mohammadreza Eyni) of the documentary feature nominee “Cutting Through Rocks,” which follows the first Iranian woman elected as a councilwoman in a rural village. The weeks since the nomination, Khaki said, have been both “terrible and wonderful,” as her home country has been rocked by protests against the Iranian regime.

“What’s terrible is what we’re experiencing back home — the internet shut down, worrying about our loved ones,” she said. “What’s wonderful is what’s happening here. So it’s a mix of emotions, really.”

Another Iranian nominee was absent altogether. Mehdi Mahmoudian, nominated as a co-writer of director Jafar Panahi’s drama “It Was Just an Accident,” was arrested earlier this month in Iran after signing a statement condemning the government’s deadly crackdown on protesters.

At each table, nominees were asked to fill out a card with a simple question: “What movie made you want to be part of this world?” After pondering for a moment, “Nomadland” Oscar winner Chloé Zhao, nominated in the directing category for the second time for the wrenching drama “Hamnet,” wrote down Hirokazu Kore-eda’s 1998 film “After Life,” a quietly humane meditation on memory and meaning that felt closely aligned with her own filmmaking sensibility. The answers, Howell explained, would be used for “a special moment” during the Oscar telecast.

As in years past, the luncheon also came with a bit of gentle coaching about what to do — and not to do — should one’s name actually be called on Oscar night, including moving briskly to the stage, keeping remarks to no more than 45 seconds and not leaning into the microphone.

Above all, Howell urged nominees to resist the temptation to thank everyone they’ve ever worked with. “You’ll forget someone and you’ll feel terrible,” she said.

Better, she suggested, to focus on what the moment actually means. “You are the show,” Howell reminded them. “It’s your speeches. This is an entertainment show millions of people will be watching, so let’s make the most of it.”

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