The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences held its annual Oscar nominees luncheon on Monday, in which everyone gets to meet their competition and pose for the class photo. Everyone turned up, from actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Sandra Bullock to music stars Bono and Pharrell Williams.
During the event, nominees received their official nomination certificates, notes TheWrap. It’s a rare opportunity for filmmakers to share how much they love each others’ films, like Gravity director Alfonso Cuaron telling Spike Jonze how much he loved Her.
“It's very exciting,” Nebraska actress June Squibb told HitFix. “I feel like I'm a part of a community; those of us who are lucky enough to be nominated are gathering to celebrate together.”
U2 frontman Bono was at the event, since the group’s “Ordinary Love” is up for an Oscar. The track is featured in Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom and he said they will perform it during the ceremony.
“It’ll be the only band performance of the song,” Bono explained to TheWrap. He added that after Nelson Mandela died, “We didn’t think it would be right to release it as a single, because it would seem like we were trying to capitalize. So we’re going to do it this once – but it’s a pretty good place to do it.”
Nearly all the nominated actors and actresses showed up. In addition to DiCaprio and Matthew McConaughey , Meryl Streep, Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Lupita Nyong'o, Jared Leto, Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Barkhad Abdi, and Bradley Cooper were there. All five Best Director nominees - Cuaron, Martin Scorsese, David O. Russell, Steve McQueen and Alexander Payne - were there as well.
Williams, whose Despicable Me 2 song “Happy” is competing against “Ordinary Love,” was also there, wearing a giant hat, like he did at the Grammys. Someone in Vegas must be calculating the odds of him showing up with one at the actual Oscars.
The 86th Academy Awards will be hosted by Ellen DeGeneres and takes place on March 2. You can check out the list of nominees here.
image: ABC