From Taittinger tastings to Wolfgang Puck’s Governors Ball menu, here’s your insider guide to the best Oscar week parties 2026 has to offer.
The champagne is already open. Hollywood is about to get loud.
There is a moment every March when Los Angeles stops pretending it is a normal city. Valet lines stretch around blocks in West Hollywood. Someone famous is standing next to someone more famous at a bar, and nobody blinks. The hotels smell like gardenias and ambition. This is Oscar week 2026, and if you know where to look, it is one of the most spectacular culinary and cultural spectacles on the planet.
From a Taittinger champagne tasting in Beverly Hills to Wolfgang Puck’s 32nd consecutive Governors Ball menu, the food and drink scene woven through awards season is as carefully curated as the films competing for the gold. Here is your insider guide to the events, the bottles, and the bites worth knowing.
The Toast Starts Early: Tuesday Through Thursday
Oscar week does not wait for the weekend. By Tuesday evening, the city is already in motion.
South Asians at the Oscars kicks things off with a roster that reads like a who’s who of South Asian creative talent, with hosts including Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Aziz Ansari, and Utkarsh Ambudkar gathering for what promises to be one of the warmest rooms of the week.
By Thursday, the party calendar is stacked. L.A. Confidential and Deadline co-host a champagne tasting with Taittinger at The Maybourne Beverly Hills from 4 to 7 p.m.
Taittinger’s Brut La Française pours pale gold with bubbles so persistent they seem almost stubborn, lifting notes of white peach, brioche, and something faintly mineral that reminds you why Champagne has its own appellation and its own attitude. If you are in the neighborhood, this is not the event to skip.
That same evening, the 20th annual Oscar Wilde Awards fills The Ebell of Los Angeles with Irish-American goodwill, sharp wit, and what the US-Ireland Alliance does better than almost anyone: make an industry event feel like a genuine celebration. J.J. Abrams, Jason Blum, and Monica Horan Rosenthal will each present awards, with comedian Matt Walsh keeping the room honest.
If you have ever wondered what happens when Hollywood’s Irish contingent decides to throw a party, the answer is: better than you’d expect, and louder than you planned for.
Friday’s Feast: From ICG Publicists to Warner Bros Nominees
Friday, March 13 is the industry’s unofficial pre-game. The 63rd ICG Publicists Awards at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel honors the people who spent the last 12 months making sure everyone else got photographed correctly. Kate Hudson, Noah Wyle, and Jimmy Kimmel are among the honorees.
By evening, Warner Bros. throws what may be the most deserved party of the week. With One Battle After Another and Sinners combining for 29 Oscar nominations, the studio has serious reason to celebrate at Mother Wolf in Hollywood.
The WIF Oscar Nominees Celebration honors leading women in film, with an attendance list that includes Kate Hudson, Elle Fanning, Rose Byrne, Renate Reinsve, and Wunmi Mosaku. Production designer Hannah Beachler, the creative force behind Sinners, is also expected. These are the rooms where the real work gets acknowledged, and the conversation is invariably better than anything happening on a red carpet.
Saturday: Animation Brunches and Netflix at Sunset Tower
Saturday brings one of the week’s most quietly charming events. Verve’s Annual Pre-Oscars Animation Brunch at Dama in Los Angeles gathers the animation community to celebrate Animated Feature and Short Film nominees.
There is something genuinely delightful about a room full of people who spend their professional lives making fictional characters feel real, all sitting down together over eggs and mimosas in the California sunshine.
By late afternoon, Netflix hosts its Academy Awards Nominee Celebration at the Sunset Tower Hotel, with Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria honoring the streamer’s two Best Picture nominees: Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein and Train Dreams. The Sunset Tower remains one of the great Hollywood institutions, and the terrace view at golden hour over the city is, frankly, unfair.
The MPTF Night Before the Academy Awards closes Saturday out, with a DJ set by Diplo and Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group leaders Pam Abdy and Michael De Luca co-chairing. The Motion Picture Television Fund has raised money to support entertainment industry workers for decades, and this event combines genuine philanthropic purpose with a genuinely good party. According to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Governors Ball following Sunday’s ceremony has been the official celebration since the early years of the awards.
Sunday: The Main Event and the Feast That Follows
The 98th Academy Awards begin at 4 p.m. at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood, airing live on ABC and Hulu. Conan O’Brien returns to host for a second consecutive year.
Then comes the Governors Ball, and this is where the food story takes over.
Wolfgang Puck and executive chef Eric Klein have designed the Governors Ball menu for 32 consecutive years, which means they understand the assignment: the room is full of people who have not eaten since noon and are oscillating between elation and devastation. The food has to be simultaneously celebratory and comforting, sophisticated and shareable. Think hand-rolled smoked salmon cornets, gold-leaf-dusted Oscar statuette chocolates, and tableside presentation that somehow manages to feel personal even at scale.
The wines this year come from Clarendelle & Domaine Clarence Dillon, the exclusive reds, whites, and rosés of the ball. Clarendelle is the approachable ambassador of the Haut-Brion family of estates, which means you are drinking serious Bordeaux pedigree without the intimidating price tag.
Expect structured reds with cassis and cedar, and whites that balance Sauvignon Blanc brightness with the roundness that only Semillon can bring.
Tequila Don Julio returns for its ninth consecutive year at the ball. At this point, the pairing of Don Julio 1942 and Oscar gold is practically its own Hollywood tradition.
The 31st annual Vanity Fair Oscar Party follows the ceremony at LACMA, the first under new Global Editorial Director Mark Guiducci. The venue shift is significant: LACMA offers scale, outdoor space, and a kind of cultural gravity that few venues in Los Angeles can match. A livestream hosted by Brittany Broski, Jake Shane, and Quenlin Blackwell runs from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. on VanityFair.com and YouTube.
The Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Awards Viewing Party in West Hollywood, co-hosted this year by Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka, features a musical performance by Grammy winner Lola Young and an attendance list that includes Sharon Stone, Keke Palmer, Patricia Arquette, and Donatella Versace. This event has raised over $100 million for HIV/AIDS programs over its 34-year history, which puts the glamour firmly in perspective.
FAQ: Oscar Week Parties 2026
What is the Governors Ball at the Oscars, and is the food really that good? The Governors Ball is the Academy’s official post-ceremony celebration, held immediately after the Oscars at the Ray Dolby Ballroom in Ovation Hollywood. Wolfgang Puck Catering has designed the menu for 32 consecutive years. The food is genuinely exceptional: multi-station, chef-driven, and calibrated to feel festive rather than formal. The wine and spirits pairings are curated specifically for the event each year.
Who hosts the Vanity Fair Oscar Party in 2026, and where is it? The 31st annual Vanity Fair Oscar Party takes place at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, a new venue for the event. It falls under the direction of the magazine’s new Global Editorial Director Mark Guiducci, and includes a public livestream hosted by Brittany Broski, Jake Shane, and Quenlin Blackwell available on VanityFair.com and the magazine’s YouTube channel from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m.
What champagne and wine is served at Oscar Week events in 2026? Taittinger Champagne features prominently in a Thursday tasting event co-hosted by L.A. Confidential and Deadline at The Maybourne Beverly Hills. At the Governors Ball, Clarendelle & Domaine Clarence Dillon wines serve as the exclusive house pour, offering Bordeaux-style reds, whites, and rosés from the family that also owns Château Haut-Brion.
Your Move: Experience Oscar Week
You do not need an invitation to every party to taste what Oscar week is really about. Book a reservation at a West Hollywood wine bar on Friday evening and watch the industry walk past. Order a bottle of Taittinger and raise a glass to whichever film you were rooting for. Follow the Governors Ball menu coverage that will land on food publications Sunday night. And if you are lucky enough to be in a room this week where great wine, great films, and great people overlap, do not spend it looking at your phone.
The season only comes once a year. Drink accordingly.
