10 things we spotted in the Oscars class photo

This Barbie is eating lunch with her fellow Oscar nominees.

The annual Academy Awards luncheon was held in Los Angeles on Monday, attended by 179 of this year’s contenders.

Every year, the Academy gathers the nominees from every category together for some mingling, a meal (this year it was wild mushroom risotto) and the traditional “class photo”.

Not every nominee was able to attend. The Color Purple star Danielle Brooks, for example, was unable to get away from filming Minecraft in New Zealand.

But there were plenty of other celebrities, outfits, poses and unusual facial expressions to keep us entertained. Here are 10 highlights:

When we wrote about the class photo in 2017, Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling were both there as best actor and actress nominees for La La Land.

For anyone with a short memory, La La Land is the film which won best picture and then lost it again four minutes later thanks to a mishap involving an envelope.

This year, Gosling and Stone have returned to the Academy Awards, but for different films – they are nominated for Barbie and Poor Things respectively.

Gosling wore a lilac suit to the luncheon – likely intended as a subtle reference to his best picture-nominated film.

Actor Sterling K Brown and songwriter Diane Warren stood together in the back row – an appropriate placing given both are aware they are not exactly the frontrunners in their categories.

Last week, Brown told Graham Norton: “I know that I’m not going to win, and I’m totally fine with it. I’ll tell you – [fellow nominee] Robert Downey Jr is going to win. And he’s incredibly deserving, he’s an incredible actor… I’m just happy to be in the room.”

We take our hats off to the American Fiction star for following the awards race so closely and knowing what his odds are in the supporting actor race.

But while Brown is a first-time nominee, Warren has been nominated a whopping 15 times for best original song – and never won. She probably won’t this year either, with her competitor What Was I Made For? by Billie Eilish the hot favourite.

Another Barbie song, I’m Just Ken, is also in the running, something Warren jokingly noted at the luncheon, telling Deadline: “You never know, they could cancel each other out.”

Yes, yes it is.

Takashi Yamazaki, one member of the visual effects team nominated for Godzilla Minus One, brought a plus one to the event – Godzillla himself.

For the last few months, Yamazaki has been bringing the figurine along with him to red carpets and premieres, so it’s only fair that the killer monster made an appearance in the class photo too.

Blockbusters often don’t get a huge amount of love from the Oscars, but the latest Godzilla movie went down well with audiences and critics, with the Guardian calling it “thunderously entertaining”.

Anybody who knows anything about the history of cinema knows that the greatest acting performance in any film ever is the dog in this year’s best picture contender, Anatomy of a Fall.

Known in the film as Snoop, the dog is in fact a border collie called Messi who flew from France to attend the luncheon, along with trainer Laura Martin Contini.

Messi was extremely popular with the actors at the event, including Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper, who was photographed meeting the dog. “The Coop meets the Snoop,” read the excellent caption.

Sadly, Messi was not included in the class photo – something we cannot understand as he is the goodest of good boys. We have submitted a formal complaint to the Academy and will let you know how it progresses.

This year’s acting nominations are a little short on Brits – the only two are Oppenheimer’s Emily Blunt and Maestro’s Carey Mulligan.

Fortunately, both made it to the luncheon and can be seen in the class photo. And although they weren’t standing together, the pair posed for photos together before the meal.

It’s worth saying Irish stars have had another big year – with Barry Keoghan, Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott all nominated at precursors including the Golden Globes and Baftas.

However, Blunt’s co-star Cillian Murphy is the only Irish acting nominee at the Oscars.

If we were in the Oscars class photo, this is the row in which we’d ask everyone to budge up and make room, as the awards buzz wattage is phenomenal.

Christopher Nolan and Martin Scorsese, the directors of Oppenheimer and Killers of the Flower Moon respectively, were placed close together in the front row, alongside two red hot acting contenders.

They were Lily Gladstone, a strong nominee for best actress for her performance in Scorsese’s film, and The Holdovers star Da’Vine Joy Randolph – who is almost certain to win best supporting actress.

Billie Eilish is always a delight to see on the red carpet – she consistently steals the spotlight with interesting and innovative looks.

The Academy luncheon was no different, with Eilish turning heads thanks to her casual bandana, yellow jacket striped shirt and tartan trousers which matched the outfit of her brother Finneas.

The pair are nominated in the best original song category for What Was I Made For? – which has already scooped them a Grammy and a Golden Globe.

In fact, the prize could be Barbie’s best chance of an Oscar on the night, with other films such as Oppenheimer likely to dominate several of the major categories.

In the absence of Messi the dog, it’s quite clear who stole the spotlight in this year’s class photo.

To the right of the picture is a man crossing his arms – a noticeable pose in a photo where most people just look straight ahead and smile.

“I must know everything about this gentleman. This is the energy we all need,” posted one film fan after the picture was released. “Kinda the star of the photo,” agreed another.

The chap in question is in fact cinematographer Matthew Libatique – who is nominated for his work on Maestro, Bradley Cooper’s biopic of Leonard Bernstein.

Libatique is so proud of his signature pose he also pulled it on the red carpet beforehand – something we’d do too if we had nails as wonderful as his.

Barbie’s Margot Robbie has been a joy to follow this awards season, wearing outfits that would make her on-screen character proud. She continued the theme in the Oscars class photo.

Although Robbie and director Greta Gerwig missed out on nominations for best actress and best director respectively, both were still present at the Academy Awards luncheon.

That’s because both are recognised in other categories – Robbie as a producer, and therefore a best picture nominee, and Gerwig for the best adapted screenplay.

Incidentally, the Barbie director is standing to the right of producer and songwriter Mark Ronson, who is nominated in best original song for I’m Just Ken.

It takes more than half an hour to get all the nominees into position, as they are called up one by one from their dinner tables.

But it takes a Herculean effort to make sure everybody is ready for the exact second the picture is taken. Inevitably, there is always someone who isn’t.

In this year’s class photo, we noticed at least five people blinking when the camera was clicked, who therefore look like they’ve all figured out how to sleep while standing up.

But the most eye-catching mishap came from Anatomy of a Fall’s Arthur Harari, who is nominated for best original screenplay alongside his wife Justine Triet, who also directed the film.

Harari was seen laughing as the picture was being taken. It’s not clear what made him crack up, but we bet Paul Giamatti had something to do with it.

The best actor favourite, who is seen standing to the right to Harrari, is known for his sense of humour, having made a string of comedic, self-deprecating acceptance speeches throughout awards season.

The Academy Awards 2024, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, take place in Los Angeles on 10 March.