On Sunday, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences held the 88th annual Oscars, bringing the ceremony back to its annual home at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. Produced by David Hill and Reginald Hudlin, the show was hosted by Chris Rock, who relentlessly addressed the Academy's diversity problem in a three-hour-plus telecast seen in 225 countries around the world on a stage dressed in more than 200,000 Swarovski crystals.
After the show, A-list guests moved upstairs to the Academy’s own bash, the Governors Ball, at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland, where caricatures of Hollywood icons past and present decorated a blush-colored ballroom.
Elsewhere around town, the splashy—and coveted—parties continued late into the night. The famous Vanity Fair bash, hosted by editor Graydon Carter
, took over a custom-designed space in Beverly Hills, with design by Basil Walter of BWArchitects. A bit further east in West Hollywood Park, another A-list event—the 24th annual Elton John AIDS Foundation dinner and viewing party, hosted by Elton John and husband David Furnish—raised a hefty $6.2 million.
Of course, the celebrating was hardly contained to the big night alone, with brands feting the Oscars in the week leading up to the ceremony. Vanity Fair's Campaign Hollywood parties and programming included the hub for digital media and influencer types known as the Vanity Fair Social Club. The gathering space, which outgrew its Hollywood home and this year moved to Culver City, included five days of formal programming and social media sharing ops.
Another that relocated was Essence magazine, which hosted its annual celebrity-heavy Black Women in Hollywood awards on February 25 at the Beverly Wilshire. The event moved last year from the Beverly Hills Hotel when Oprah Winfrey's decision to carry the show on OWN required a space with more room for the broadcast. The event had special significance in a year when topics related to race dominated the Oscar conversation.
Here are some of the visual highlights from these and other events during Hollywood's biggest week of the year.
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