12 things we spotted from Ariana Grande to Timothée Chalamet

Ariana Grande, Timothée Chalamet and Demi Moore were among the Oscar nominees who gathered in Los Angeles on Tuesday for the annual “class photo”.

Ahead of the Academy Awards on Sunday (2 March), the nominees from all categories were invited to mingle over dinner and cocktails, as an eventful awards race reaches its conclusion.

The class photo, a highlight of the film calendar, is usually taken much earlier in awards season, at the nominees luncheon, but that event was cancelled this year due to the LA wildfires.

Here are 12 things we spotted in this year’s class photo:

Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande have spent the last few months crying, holding space and stroking each other’s fingers as they promoted the screen adaptation of Wicked.

The two actresses have redefined the film press tour in recent weeks thanks to their absolute adoration for each other – an energy they will have to recreate later this year when they do it all again for the release of part two.

Before the photo was taken, instead of saying cheese, Erivo shouted: “Everyone say ‘Oscar nominee!'”

Last week, it was confirmed the pair will perform a medley of songs from the film during the Oscars ceremony which will last a reported 10 minutes long.

Wicked is the closest thing the Oscars have this year to a box office smash in the shape of last year’s Barbie, and they’ll be hoping the medley will recreate the energy of Ryan Gosling’s viral performance of I’m Just Ken last year.

We’re aware the weather is getting warmer and the sun is rising earlier as we hurtle towards Spring, but we are nevertheless always on the lookout for a colourful cosy jumper and we need to investigate the origin of this one as an urgent priority.

The woman with the impeccable sweater selection in the class photo is Maya Gnyp – a producer of I Am Ready, Warden – which is nominated for best documentary short.

The film follows Texas death row inmate John Henry Ramire in his final days.

Joining Ariana and Cynthia on the front row were fellow acting nominees Zoe Saldaña, Mikey Madison and Monica Barbaro.

Saldaña is almost certain to win best supporting actress for Emilia Pérez, having taken the trophy at a string of precursor events including the Baftas, SAG Awards and Golden Globes.

As a result, her fellow category nominees such as Barbaro, who plays Joan Baez in Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, have had to practise their best “I’m just happy to be nominated” faces this year.

Madison, however, is a co-frontrunner in a tight race for leading actress. The Anora star is up against Demi Moore for The Substance in a category seen as a dead heat.

James Mangold, nominated this year for A Complete Unknown, is one of Hollywood’s most respected and loved directors.

So why is he sitting on an aisle seat in the second-back row, away from all his pals, looking sheepish?

It’s probably because he only just made the class photo by the skin of his teeth, arriving late to the event to an affectionate collective groan followed by cheers from his fellow nominees.

Despite a distinguished Hollywood career, Mangold is a first-time nominee in the best director category, as are his fellow nominees Coralie Fargeat, Sean Baker, Brady Corbet and Jacques Audiard.

In a year where disappointingly few of the stars pulled funny faces or made eye-catching hand gestures while the photo was being taken, we applaud the team from Black Box Diaries for joining hands and celebrating.

They are the film’s director Shiori Ito (second left), editor Ema Ryan Yamazaki (far right) and producers Hanna Aqvilin and Eric Nyari.

The movie, nominated in the documentary feature category, examines a sexual assault investigation in Japan.

Sitting in the back row, so far from the photographer that their faces are somewhat blurry and out of focus, are three of the biggest stars in this year’s awards race.

In the centre is The Substance star Demi Moore, nominated for playing an ageing aerobics instructor who takes a black-market drug to create a younger, more beautiful version of herself.

She is joined on either side by supporting actor nominees Guy Pearce (left), who is recognised for his role in The Brutalist, and Edward Norton, who is nominated for playing Pete Seeger in A Complete Unknown.

Also hanging out in the front row were songwriter Bernie Taupin and singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile.

The pair are nominated in the best original song category for writing Never Too Late, the title track from Sir Elton John’s recent documentary.

Sir Elton himself wasn’t there, however, despite co-writing the song with the pair.

It’s likely he will attend the Oscars on Sunday, but he won’t be singing his song as the Academy has done away with having the original song nominees perform during the ceremony this year.

Instead, Doja Cat, Lisa from Blackpink, Queen Latifah and Raye will be among the other performers during the ceremony alongside the Wicked medley.

Timothée Chalamet joined his fellow nominees just days after springing a surprise win at the SAG Awards for A Complete Unknown.

In his speech, the actor talked about his desire to be “one of the greats” of Hollywood.

However, the actor has not been campaigning as aggressively as frontrunner Adrien Brody, and for the class photo, Chalamet took an aisle seat, leaned out and put his fist to his chest.

Seated just in front of him are Anora’s director Sean Baker and his producer wife Samantha Quan.

Adding further star power to the blurry back row were best actor contenders Adrien Brody, Colman Domingo and Sebastian Stan.

Brody is the frontrunner to win, for his role in the Brutalist as a Hungarian architect who moves to the US after World War Two and is taken under the wing of a wealthy businessman.

Sing Sing star Domingo plays a prison inmate who joins a performing arts programme, while Stan is nominated for portraying a young Donald Trump.

The Brits nominated in the acting categories this year are The Brutalist’s Felicity Jones, Wicked’s Cynthia Erivo, and Conclave’s Ralph Fiennes.

The actor was on Fiennes form, sitting in the back row alongside Sing Sing’s John “Divine G” Whitfield.

Fiennes is unlikely to win best actor, but if Conclave wins the top Oscar, he’ll become the first actor ever to have appeared in four best picture winners.

Understandably, not every nominee was available to attend the dinner – best supporting actor frontrunner Kieran Culkin was among the stars missing from the class photo.

But others were conspicuous by their absence, most notably Emilia Pérez star Karla Sofía Gascón.

The actress is persona non grata in Hollywood at the moment, after some historic tweets she posted resurfaced in recent weeks, severely damaging the film’s awards chances in many categories.

However, it’s been confirmed she will attend the Oscars ceremony itself on Sunday – although it remains to be seen if she will walk the red carpet and sit with her co-stars.

Sing Sing star Clarence Maclin was widely considered the most notable absence in the best supporting actor category this year.

But he is still nominated at the Oscars thanks to his story credit on the film, which means he is recognised in the best adapted screenplay category.

Maclin was one of the real-life inmates at the Sing Sing jail, after being sentenced to 17 years in jail for robbery, aged 29, and was a member of the prison’s Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA) programme.

In the class photo, Maclin, who plays a version of himself in Sing Sing, is either checking his watch or possibly about to sneeze.