2014 Academy Awards

I love film. I also love any excuse to pretend I from a bygone era where everyone dressed up on a daily basis (I looking at you the 1950s). I am also single and childless, therefore, not much opportunity to throw a big bash - except for every year during the Academy Awards. I hosted an Oscar party for the first time last year, and while it was fun I was disappointed with how it turned out: I was too invested in watching every single minute of the broadcast, not enough games or options to accommodate my guests if they did want to watch or if they just wanted to hang out, and not enough guests. Thus, this year I took the 'go big or go home' approach. Here are some ideas to help you host your own Oscar party.

1. Pick a color scheme, stick to it, and make it simple. This year I went with black, white, and silver. Classic Hollywood colors. The year before I tried to do all the official Oscar colors (black, white, red, and gold) and it was way to much going on and did not look clean or elegant. Next year I am thinking all gold or black and red.

2. Find some games. I find that having an Oscar Ballot, Oscar Bingo, and some sort of trivia game works best. I Googled/Pintrested until I found a Ballot that worked best with my theme and printed clearly. For prizes it's better to go with the major categories such as Best Picture, Actress, etc., unless you have major film buffs going to your party. The best bingo that I found was from www.punchbowl.com, but wait till it is closer to the broadcast or your bingo will be outdated. I also found a word search that worked great as a good gooey bag item, but too time consuming for the party itself. I made the trivia game myself. I had my guests guess Academy nominated films by quotes from the film or by trivia from imdb.com. For winning each game I gave out books, dvds, or soundtracks from movies.

3. Add a Hollywood flare. This year I had a popcorn machine and mason jars with each nominated film written on them with chalk. Furthermore, in the picture below my friend baked Oscar cupcakes and added stars and a paper cutout of the famous statue. For the last surprise, after the best actor was announced I pulled out a cake with the words "Sorry, Leo" (see picture below). 

Have fun with it and
see what works best.
Next year I hope to do a candy/ice cream bar. We'll see how it goes!