Inside the Oscar Nominees Lunch, Where ‘Sinners,’ Timothée Chalamet, and ‘Frankenstein’ Felt the Love

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At the annual Oscar nominations lunch, gauging the applause meter is part of the game, as the Academy rep (in this case, Lou Diamond Phillips) calls each nominee up to the riser for the class photo. This year, 197 Oscar nominees, including four international director nominees, made the trek to the Beverly Hilton.

“Your storytelling is the greatest truth we have,” Academy president Lynette Howell Taylor told the gathering. “Giving your time and energy to this art form is crucial because movies can change perspectives.”

Missing were “One Battle After Another” star Sean Penn, “Sentimental Value” star Renate Reinsve, and Original Screenplay nominee “It Was Just an Accident” co-writer Mehdi Mahmoudian, who was sent to prison in Iran earlier this month. Writer/director Jafar Panahi will return to Iran after the Oscars, he told me soberly, knowing he may end up there as well.

(L-R) the "Pillion" Headline Gala at the 69th BFI London Film Festival at The Royal Festival Hall on October 18, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images for BFI)

‘Sirat’ director Oliver Laxe on the Toolkit podcast

Writer-director Jafar Panahi of 'It Was Just an Accident.'

The celebrities always score the most noise. “Sinners” generated warm applause for Michael B. Jordan, Wunmi Mosaku, and my tablemate Delroy Lindo (who is writing his memoirs), as well as writer/director Ryan Coogler.

But so did “One Battle After Another” writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson and star Leonardo DiCaprio, who is about to start his new Martin Scorsese movie with Jennifer Lawrence (“What Happens at Night”) and said he can’t wait to see David Fincher’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” sequel about Cliff Booth, as well as Teyana Taylor, who hung out during the lunch with Kate Hudson (“Song Sung Blue”).

Actress Emma Stone (“Bugonia”) got a big round, along with the “KPop Demon Hunters” team, who gathered round for a photo with Timothée Chalamet. Also drawing cheers were “Frankenstein” director/producer Guillermo del Toro, first-timer Jacob Elordi, and composer Alexandre Desplat, who has been nominated 12 times and won twice (“The Shape of Water” and “The Grand Budapest Hotel”).

Timothée Chalamet and the "K-Pop Demon Hunters" gang.

Steven Spielberg went up on the riser as the producer of “Hamnet” after a chat with Lindo: it made his day. The Oscars planners saved the best for last as Chalamet, Coogler, Anderson, Del Toro, and Jessie Buckley all were called up at the end and brought down the house.

Ethan Hawke and Chloé Zhao had a chat during the lunch, as did Chalamet and DiCaprio, Benicio Del Toro and Oliver Laxe (“Sirat”), and Warners exec Michael De Luca and “F1” producer Jerry Bruckheimer, who has many sequels in the works including a new “Top Gun,” “Heat 2,” and a “Pirates of the Caribbean” film with Margot Robbie.

Making the rounds instead of Bob Iger were newly appointed Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro and his content chief Dana Walden, whose ABC has a contract to run the Oscars through 2028. After that, the show will move to YouTube.

At long last, on March 15, the Oscars will give out the gold statue for Best Casting. The Oscar executive producers Raj Kapoor and Katy Mullan are back for their third consecutive year, and their second with host Conan O’Brien. The producers promise some surprise visits from Oscar veterans and a special musical interlude — one reason they kept the song nominee performances down to just two (the most popular “Golden” from “KPop Demon Hunters” and “I Lied to You” from “Sinners”).

Ratings could pick up this year, because the Oscar leaders — “One Battle After Another,” “Sinners,” “Hamnet,” and “Marty Supreme” — are all box office hits.

While many major Oscar categories are easy to call right now (hello, “Hamnet” star Jessie Buckley), winning your Oscar pool requires figuring out the winners of the craft categories, documentaries, and shorts. The VFX team from “Avatar: Fire and Ash” is one to count on.

And on the documentary feature side, “The Alabama Solution” nominee Andrew Jarecki reported that after waiting a year after the film’s debut at Sundance, the Alabama prison system did put his two lead activists, Melvin Ray and Robert Earl Council, back into solitary confinement, but that rousing protests eventually got them returned to their cells.

The 98th Oscars air Sunday, March 15 on ABC. See more photos from inside the room below.