They call it Oscar Sunday because that’s what it is—an entire day dedicated to the 2024 Academy Awards. At around 1 p.m. in Los Angeles, the luminous award showgoers and nominees started their walks down the red carpet, which was swagged with branches of vibrant California Bougenvellia (by Academy Awards creative consultants Lisa Love and Raul Àvila), after which they found their seats inside Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre for a night emceed by Jimmy Kimmel.
After his opening, which was peppered with knee-slappers like “Look kids, it’s Barbie and Ken! [to Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling]…I want you to know that even if neither one of you wins an Oscar tonight, you both already won something much more important, the genetic lottery,” and, to Steven Spielberg: “Are you nominated tonight, or are you here because you have season tickets?”
But alongside his many jokes came a moment to acknowledge what his industry had undergone last year—two historic, months-long guild strikes. “The reason we were able to make a deal is because of the people who rallied beside us, so before we celebrate ourselves, let’s have a very well-deserved round of applause for the people who work behind the scenes,” Kimmel said. He called to the stage a group of people who help to run the show. “I’m gonna make sure this show is really long tonight, so you get a ton of overtime,” he added.
But during the broadcast, ABC’s cameras can only pan to so many faces. Luckily for us, there are also photographers aplenty capturing the goings-on within the celeb-packed audience. From Robert De Niro greeting fellow nominee Jodi Foster before the ceremony (47 years after they co-starred in Taxi Driver) to America Ferrera and Da’Vine Joy Randolph (both nominated for best supporting actress) taking selfies, here are our favorite moments.