After Oscar winners collect their golden statuettes on stage at the Dolby Theatre, they are brought into rooms outside to have their photos taken and answer questions from journalists.
For this year’s Academy Awards, this was my spot – a front-row seat to the stars everyone is talking about.
The room holds several hundred reporters and there’s an Oscar-worthy buffet in the hallway outside to keep us going all day.
All the journalists are hoping to be selected to ask a question. Each winner is limited to answering about three to four and you show interest by holding up numbered cards. It’s then up to a moderator to select which reporters get to ask away.
But it’s not just about questions. It’s about witnessing those little moments behind the scenes, the things you don’t get to see on TV.
There’s a buzz in the room that builds and builds as the big winners come in towards the end, with one star in particular eliciting a lot of love from the journalists. Here are the best moments.
Jessie Buckley’s party plans
Buckley with her gong. Pic: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP
After making history as the first Irish woman to collect the best actress Oscar, Jessie Buckley was asked what her message is to all her supporters back in Ireland who stayed up overnight to watch her win.
“Don’t go to bed, keep partying!” she replied. “That’s what I’m going to do.”
After winning not just the Oscar, but also the BAFTA, Golden Globe, Critics Choice and Actor Award before it, you would expect nothing less.
“I’m so grateful for the support, and I feel the love. Man, I feel it.
“I feel it from young people and old people, from women and men, and from my family,” Buckley said, adding that she had relatives from New Zealand and Australia as well as Ireland who had flown to LA for the ceremony.
“That makes it real,” she said. “They’re the people who built me.
“To share this moment with them and know that back home they are either drunk or staying up – I’m delighted for us all.”
Standing ovation for Michael B Jordan
There was a lot of love for Jordan in the room. Pic: AP
Buckley got a big cheer, but Michael B Jordan‘s is even bigger. It takes about 40 seconds for the applause to die down after Jordan is announced as the next winner to be coming into the room.
All the journalists are on their feet as he walks in with his Oscar.
Winning the award feels “timely”, he said, adding that he is here because of black winners before him, such as Denzel Washington and Halle Berry.
“Dream big,” he said, is his advice for other young creatives. “And be kind, be honest.”
Being supportive to the next generation is important to him, he added: “So trying to be an example. I’m not a big talker, but I like to think I’m about that action.”
Cue more applause as he left the room.
Making history ‘for the ladies in the room and girls at home’
History-making Sinners cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw. Pic: AP
Jordan was not the only Sinners star to get a big reaction in the room, with a huge round of applause, too, for cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw.
When her name was announced as the winner, she became the first woman ever to win this category in 98 years of the Oscars.
“It’s tricky because when you go up there you have so much to say, especially after 98 years,” she said. “But one thing I was going to say that I had written down was that a lot of little girls that look like me will sleep really well tonight because they’ll want to become cinematographers.”
She said she wanted the award “for all the ladies in the room, and I wanted it for all the girls at home”.
K-pop Demon Hunters songwriters finish speech after being stage cut-off
Golden songwriters Joong Gyu Kwak, from left, EJAE, and Mark Sonnenblick. Pic: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP
After being cut off during the acceptance speech for best song, Ejae, singer-songwriter on the KPop Demon Hunters hit Golden, said she wanted to thank fellow singers Rei Ami and Audrey Nuna, because they “killed it with their singing and they’re just incredible people”.
After it was noted that there had been some booing when they were cut off on stage, songwriter and composer Mark Sonnenblick said he had wanted to thank his family and “everybody who worked on this movie, all the animators, it was a real collaboration across the board”.
Awards librarians
Jack Piatt and Sam A Davis, Natalie Musteata and Alexandre Singh, tied winners of live action short. Pic: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP
We had a very rare moment during this year’s ceremony – a tie, with The Singers and Two People Exchanging Saliva sharing the award for best live-action short film.
In the 98-year history of the Academy Awards, this had only happened six times before.
How did I find this out so quickly? Well, in one corner of the press room, there are Academy Awards librarians who can give you any fact or figure you want to know about the Oscars. So when the tie was announced, cue a queue of reporters trying to find out exactly how rare a feat this is.
The last time it happened was in 2012, when Skyfall and Zero Dark Thirty were both recognised for sound editing.
Oscars bingo
Weapons star Amy Madigan was the first winner of the night. Pic: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP
The first winner of the night was Amy Madigan, named best supporting actress for her chilling performance in Weapons, and she was quick to note the journalists holding their cards up.
“How do you decide who gets to ask a question?” she asked, getting a laugh. “Is it like bingo or something, how does it work?”
Asked whether she was prepared for a possible win, she said she knew it was a special day as she had shaved her legs especially.
