Honoring the nominees! The 2019 Oscars Nominees Luncheon took pace at the Beverly Hilton on Monday afternoon, bringing together almost all of the nominated actors, directors, producers, writers and more for a celebratory affair less than three weeks ahead of the 2019 Academy Awards. SEE ALSO: See the 2019 Oscars class photo "A Star Is Born" actors Bradley Cooper, Lady Gaga and Sam Elliott were there, as were "Green Book" stars Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali. Regina King, Glenn Close, Rachel Weisz and Laura Dern were also in attendance at the star-studded lunch, which culminates in a so-called "class photo" being taken of all of the nominees. Check out the gallery below for all of our favorite photos from the event, including Melissa McCarthy bringing her mom as her date:<doc-sep>Nominees for the 91st Annual Academy Awards were celebrated at a luncheon held at the Beverly Hilton, Monday, February 4, 2019. (Click for larger photo.) Want to encounter a few hundred impeccably dressed, extremely happy film professionals? The annual Oscar nominees luncheon is the place to be. Despite a rainy morning in Los Angeles, the mood was predictably upbeat at Monday’s annual gathering of Academy Award nominees at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills. Honorees walked yet another red carpet, mingled during a cocktail hour, enjoyed a salmon lunch and, finally, posed for the famous “class photo” (above). While bold-faced names like Viggo Mortensen (Best Actor, Green Book) and Willem Dafoe (Best Actor, At Eternity’s Gate) found quiet corners to confab, below the line and short film contenders used the opportunity to snap selfies with the likes of Rami Malek (Best Actor, Bohemian Rhapsody), Christian Bale (Best Actor, Vice) and Mahershala Ali (Best Supporting Actor, Green Brook), proving even Oscar nominees can be fanboys. With photographers swarming, a handler of Rachel Weisz (Best Supporting Actress, The Favourite) guided her over to meet Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige, a Best Picture nominee for Black Panther who attended in the “undercover superhero” signature logo-less baseball cap. Could a new MCU partnership be in the works? That’s what fans of Lady Gaga (Best Actress, A Star Is Born) were hoping when we posted this photo of the Best Actress contender standing next to Feige as the noms began filling the bleachers for the class photo. (Dazzler, anyone?) #OscarsLunch: Where head of Marvel Studios (Kevin Feige) and head Gaga (Lady Gaga) stand side-by-side on the bleachers for 30 minutes pic.twitter.com/pC0KrHUO17 — Kevin Polowy (@djkevlar) February 4, 2019 Asked how he celebrated his second nomination for Best Score, Moonlight and If Beale Street Could Talk composer Nicholas Britell said “I did everything.” (Though when asked to elaborate, it seemed he’s just continued promoting Beale Street at Q&As and such.) Hannah Beachler, who became the first African-American woman ever nominated for Best Production Design with Black Panther, said she simply went back to work on a Tom Hanks-directed project in Cincinnati. Speaking of Black Panther‘s production design, one of the most remarkable things about the seven-time nominated superhero movie is that while it’s set mainly in the fictional African country of Wakanda, all of the first unit shooting was done stateside. “People ask me where we filmed in Africa,” Beachler said. “I say, ‘Atlanta. '” Story continues Revered director of photography Caleb Deschanel (Best Cinematography, Never Look Away) remarked how excited he was to be seated at the same table as “Glenny” — that’ll be The Wife Oscar favorite Glenn Close. In a Role Recall interview with Yahoo Entertainment earlier this year, Close credited her third Oscar nomination, for The Natural, to Deschanel, now a six-time nominee and the father of actresses Zooey and Emily. While addressing the audience, Academy president John Bailey did not seem the least beleaguered over what’s been a challenging year for the organization between the blowback they faced over a proposed “Best Popular Film” category and the controversy over the short-lived tenure of one-time host Kevin Hart before he stepped down over a history of homophobic comments and tweets. While the host situation was never broached (the show will be hostless for the first time in 30 years, barring an 11th-hour change), Bailey did reference the very first Academy Awards ceremony in 1927, which included two Best Picture champions (Wings for “Best Picture, Production” and Sunrise for Best Picture, Unique and Artistic Productions, though Wings is historically considered the legit Best Picture winner). In other words: It’s been done before. Bailey touted the record-breaking number of women nominated for Oscars, as well as high-profile first-time nominees like Spike Lee (BlackKkKlansman) in the Best Director category and Paul Schrader (First Reformed) in Best Original Screenplay. He also promised a three-hour telecast (the Oscars is known for going well over), which was echoed by the show’s producers, Glenn Weiss (who won the Emmys last year with his marriage proposal) and Donna Giglotti. Rumors of what’s being cut from the telecast, however, has raised some eyebrows on Twitter, and the Academy has since changed their minds that only two of the five nominees for Best Original Song would perform live. Regardless, if your Oscar pool is still using “show length” as a tie breaker, bet on 3 hours on the dot. Weiss and Giglotti, meanwhile, coached potential winners on the most effective way to deliver an Oscar speech, warning that all victors have no more than 45 seconds. As an example of what they considered one of the best, most “meaningful” speeches in Oscars history (another word that was oft-echoed), they aired Steven Soderbergh’s memorable acceptance speech from when he won Best Director in 2001 for Traffic (he was also nominated that year for Erin Brockovich) in which he championed the arts at large. Then came Laura Dern Time. The Academy governor once again gamely handled duties of announcing (and oftentimes, impressively pronouncing) the entire roster of nominees in attendance as they made their way up to the bleachers for the class photo. (Notable absences included The Favourite actresses Emma Stone and Olivia Colman, Black Panther soundtrack artists Kendrick Lamar and SZA, BlacKkKlansman actor Adam Driver and Green Book co-writer Nick Vallelonga (who might not have drawn the warmest reception after an anti-Muslim tweet resurfaced in the lead-up to nominations). As for who received the loudest applause — if it means anything in the tea leaf-reading that is predicting the Oscars, that would be Lee, Regina King (Best Supporting Actress, Beale Street), Malek, Barry Jenkins (Best Adapted Screenplay, Beale Street), Ali and Phil Lord (Best Animated Feature, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse) — but oddly, not his co-producer and partner in crime, Chris Miller. Only one nominee was prefaced with “Queen,” though. And that would be Lady Gaga. Watch Lady Gaga talk about her role in A Star Is Born: The 91st Annual Academy Awards air on ABC at 8 p.m. ET on Feb. 24. Read more on Yahoo Entertainment:<doc-sep>This year’s Academy Award nominees gathered Monday for the annual Oscar nominees luncheon and class photo, hosted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ board of governors. A number of stars attended the event held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, including this year’s best actress nominees Glenn Close, Lady Gaga, Yalitza Aparicio, and Melissa McCarthy, as well as their male counterparts Christian Bale, Rami Malek, Bradley Cooper, Willem Dafoe, and Viggo Mortensen. This year’s best director nominees were also in attendance, including Adam McKay, Yorgos Lanthimos, Spike Lee, and Alfonso Cuarón, whose film “Roma” led this year’s nominations alongside Lanthimos’ “The Favourite.” Both films also scored nods for best picture, alongside “Black Panther,” “BlacKkKlansman,” “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “A Star Is Born,” “Vice,” and “Green Book.” Other nominees in the crowd included Amy Adams, Sam Elliott, Mahershala Ali, Marina de Tavira, Richard E. Grant, Regina King, Sam Rockwell, and Rachel Weisz. Nominees who didn’t show up include Olivia Colman, Emma Stone, Adam Driver, and Kendrick Lamar, who’s up for original song. The 91st Oscars will be held on Feb. 24, and the ceremony will air live on ABC at 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET. It is expected to be viewed in 225 countries and territories worldwide. Here’s the full list of 2019 Oscar nominations. See the class photo below, and click here for a larger version.<doc-sep>
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (Reuters) - Pop singer Lady Gaga, Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron and African-American filmmaker Spike Lee were among scores of Oscar nominees who gathered for a group photo on Monday ahead of the Academy Awards ceremony in three weeks time, when only a handful will go home as winners. Actors Glenn Close, Bradley Cooper, Rami Malek and Amy Adams, along with dozens of producers, editors, costume designers, documentary makers and musicians in 24 categories were also among those attending the annual Oscar nominees luncheon in Beverly Hills. John Bailey, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences whose members vote on the Oscar winners, said the class of 2019 was notable for its diversity. “This year has the largest class of women nominees. Far from parity, and of course we need to do better. Gender parity is an industry matter, not just an Academy matter,” Bailey told the guests. “Inclusion, diversity, racial, ethnic and gender equality are not just buzzwords. They go to the heart of what our Academy is doing,” he added. The luncheon took place with still no official word on whether the Feb. 24 Oscar ceremony would go ahead without a host for only the second time in its 91-year history. The Oscar show producers urged the eventual winners to keep their acceptance speeches short on the big night, particularly as the Academy has pledged to cut this year’s telecast by about 30 minutes to three hours. Producer Glenn Weiss said the goal was to deliver “an enjoyable and entertaining evening while we work hard to produce a three-hour show for the first time.” Cuaron’s “Roma” and Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos comedy “The Favourite” lead nominations for the Oscars with 10 apiece.