I’m here at the Oscars – here’s what’s surprised me so far

My celebrity spotting begins before I touch down in Los Angeles for the 2026 Oscars, clocking A Different Man star Adam Pearson checking in for the same flight as me on Friday morning at Heathrow.

Eleven hours later and I was standing in the inevitably long passport control queue at LAX just a bit behind Nick Cave and his wife Susie – complete with garment bag in a Valentino carrier – because, business class or not, nothing will level you like a US customs line.

Checking into my hotel in Hollywood a little while later that evening and signs were about for showbiz’s biggest night, from literal billboards to the rooftop party people were checking in for as I arrived.

Hitting the sidewalks of Sunset, Hollywood and Highland on Saturday to pick up credentials and get a feel for the atmosphere, things are looking very official on the block where the famous Dolby Theatre is located, host to every annual Academy Awards ceremony since 2002 and opposite the iconic façade of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre with its stone handprints outside.

Aside from a visible security presence and dozens of members of crew flitting between the scenes, the thing that most people tend to forget about the Oscars with its glitz and glam is that the event actually takes place in a shopping centre, complete with a Walgreens and a branch of Victoria’s Secret!

However, it’s dressed up so beautifully with cream drapes, giant Oscar statuettes and swathes of red carpet – an effort that takes a week and a half, a security guard tells me – that it would be very hard to tell otherwise.

But on the ground, you are directed via the mall’s backstage corridors to circumvent the barriers and access the rest of Hollywood Blvd, unavoidably cutting right by the carpet and in front of the doors to the Dolby and its 3,400 seats.

Preparation is still in full swing less than 24 hours beforehand, with no detail too small: Later, a team of three will adjust the placement of the trio of giant Oscars outside the Dolby by mere inches.

While excitement is palpable from many in and among the buzz from tourists and some locals, others are a little frustrated.

‘We’re closed one time a year, you know which day we’re closed? March 15th – we’re open on Christmas and every other day, but they shut down the street [for the Oscars], so it doesn’t help business, it hurts business,’ says Jason, who works at a souvenir shop located on the same block.

He’s also not across any of the movies up for Oscars this year either.

‘In the past, I would know all the films that were nominated. I am so far removed from that,’ he adds.

Locals tell me the names of the movies they’re rooting for, with Sinners, Frankenstein and Marty Supreme mentioned the most, as well as support for Sean Penn’s scenery-chewing turn as One Battle After Another’s villain.

Staff at a nearby cinema reveal they have an Oscars-themed raffle going on with a bonus prize for the person who most accurately predicts how long the show will be after inevitably running over.

Shopworker Jose, who’s been based in Hollywood for 10 years, hasn’t seen any of the films nominated except KPop Demon Hunters because it was on Netflix and ‘everyone was taking about that one’.

His verdict? ‘The music was kind of catchy and the animation was pretty good actually.’

In terms of the FBI’s warning ahead of this year’s ceremony of the possibility of an Iranian drone attack, there’s either little awareness or a refusal to be cowed.

‘I don’t ever live my life being afraid of anything. I came from a place where I was bullied all the time as a kid so that kind of energy… I don’t think about that side of things,’ says art director and long-term local resident Oz Powers, formerly credited as Rob, who worked with James Cameron as virtual environment supervisor on Avatar.

He hasn’t noticed a visible uptick in security and police presence this year compared to others as it’s ‘always pretty tight’.

‘I’m not stupid but at the same time, I’m not going to sit my house because I’m afraid that somebody’s going to do something.’

He has a plea for the rest of the world: ‘Don’t give up on America because most people here are as freaked out as you guys are about the craziness – and it will pass. So still think about us positively because the whole country is not extreme like some of the stuff that’s going on… It’s like a bad talk show.’

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