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      Angel Olsen, Yaya Bey and Others On Their Favorite Songs of Summer

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      These tracks will make for a lovely dinner playlist and all but guarantee some after-hours dancing.A lot of us still remember the labor of love that was the mixtape, those countless hours spent pressing record, stop, rewind and play. But, while less time-consuming, curating a digital playlist, rather than relying on an algorithm-fueled compilation, can still be a thoughtful gesture, one that might make all the difference at a dinner party. Song choices can be a way to share (or forget) what’s going on in the world, act as a conversation starter and, above all, set the mood. More

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      The Middle Eastern Party Scene Thriving in Brooklyn

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      Several New York City parties offer spaces where anyone and everyone can let loose, come together and find comfort in Middle Eastern and North African music.Just before midnight on a Friday in June, a short line formed outside Elsewhere, a music venue and nightclub in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Saphe Shamoun, one of the D.J.s performing that night, gingerly approached two women in the queue.“Are you here for Laylit?” he asked. They nodded, and Mr. Shamoun directed them toward another entrance — and a much longer line — further up the block.Laylit, or “the night of” in Arabic, is a party based in New York and Montreal that spotlights music from the Middle East and North Africa and its diaspora.It has had a residency at Elsewhere since October, but this night was special: The event had become so popular that for the first time, it was being held not in the venue’s smaller rooms but in its cavernous hall, where over 800 people would soon dance under a shimmering disco ball and hypnotic light show.On the bill: a performance by Anya Kneez, a Lebanese drag queen, and D.J. sets highlighting Arabic pop, hip-hop, folk and electronic music.A decade ago, it was practically unheard-of for a major New York club to regularly host a Middle Eastern-themed party. But now, Laylit is part of a thriving scene in Brooklyn that puts Middle Eastern and North African music front and center.The events vary in style, but they all celebrate cultures that the promoters say have been overlooked in the West. And they offer many New Yorkers a sense of comfort in a teeming city that can nonetheless feel isolating, especially after more than two years of a pandemic.“It’s so, so beautiful to see the community coming together,” said Felukah, a hip-hop artist who moved to New York from Egypt in 2018 and is a regular at Laylit and other parties like it. “The sounds remind me of home.”For some partygoers, nostalgia is the main attraction. Yet each event also looks toward the future, be it through challenging stereotypical notions of Middle Eastern culture or by championing inclusivity and progressive ideals.Laylit, for one, has created a shared space for Arabs who hold those values, said Mr. Shamoun, a Syrian D.J. and Ph.D. candidate who founded the party in 2018 with Wake Island, a Montreal-based music duo made up of Philippe Manasseh and Nadim Maghzal.Ironically, it wasn’t until the two left their native Lebanon that they embraced its sounds.“It wasn’t cool when I was growing up to play Arabic music,” Mr. Maghzal said.“It was actually uncool,” Mr. Manasseh added.And after emigrating to Montreal in the early 2000s, they actively separated themselves from their culture, fearing discrimination and feeling a sense of duty to assimilate, Mr. Manasseh said.But now, they use Laylit as an outlet to rediscover their roots. In September, they’ll be celebrating the party’s fourth anniversary with another show at Elsewhere, and a tour across Montreal, Detroit and Washington, D.C.Ana Masreya, an Egyptian drag queen, getting ready before a drag show at Littlefield, in Brooklyn.Ahmed Gaber for The New York TimesDisco Tehran, a dance party and performance project that channels the international music culture of 1970s Iran, was also born out of the immigrant experience. The organizers, Arya Ghavamian and Mani Nilchiani, said it took years to get it off the ground.Nearly a decade ago, Mr. Ghavamian, an Iranian filmmaker who had moved to the United States a few years earlier, approached an organization about throwing a party to celebrate Nowruz, a holiday that marks the beginning of the Persian New Year and is observed in several countries across Central and West Asia. “It was a ‘no,’” Mr. Ghavamian said.A few years later, he began hosting get-togethers in his apartment where he would cook Persian cuisine and invite musicians to play. By early 2018, his apartment could no longer accommodate the crowds, so he and Mr. Nilchiani hosted their first public Disco Tehran event: the long-shelved Nowruz celebration.The party has since expanded and evolved, and it now includes a film project and community outreach efforts. It celebrated its fourth anniversary last month at the Sultan Room, a nightclub and eatery in Bushwick, with an eclectic playlist and performances by Alsarah and the Nubatones, an East African retro pop band, and Epilogio, a Puerto Rican indie-funk band.Disco Tehran, Mr. Ghavamian said, “is about a collection of different cultures who may not have anything to do with each other on a given day, but they come together.”And the project is on its third European tour, which gives the organizers the sense that they “have a place wherever we are in the world,” Mr. Ghavamian said. Its next New York event is Aug. 13, at the Knockdown Center in Queens.Yalla! Party Project also grew out of intimate apartment gatherings, hosting its first public event in the spring of 2018. (“Yalla” translates to “let’s go” or “come on” in Arabic.) Its founder yearned for a queer party that featured Southwest Asian and North African music.Over the years, Yalla! has expanded into an arts collective and community-building exercise. It is starting a professional directory to help people find jobs and it runs a market that supports small businesses run by women, people of color and queer people.Its parties reflect New York’s cultural diversity. At a May show at the Sultan Room, an Eritrean henna artist drew intricate patterns on a man’s palm while partygoers danced to R&B and Lebanese pop. Yalla! also ramped up programming during Pride month, with four events spread across venues in Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx.Hanan Selim, center, dances with her husband and friends during a Haza party in Bushwick, Brooklyn.Ahmed Gaber for The New York TimesOnce word of Yalla! got around, similar events followed. It was at an early Yalla! show where Mr. Maghzal, of Laylit, first spun Arabic music. A year later, a drag queen named Ana Masreya — her name means “I’m an Egyptian woman” in Arabic — organized a Middle Eastern and North African cabaret called Nefertitties, a play on the name of the ancient Egyptian queen.Ana celebrated her show’s third anniversary in May with an event at Littlefield, in Gowanus, and visited Washington, D.C., for a cabaret in late June. For her grand entrance at the anniversary show, she was carried in on a makeshift sedan chair, shrouded by a gold mesh sheet, which she later removed to reveal a gold crown modeled after that of Nefertiti.Onstage, Ana spoke about her experience being a publicly known L.G.B.T.Q. person from the Middle East, a region where homosexuality is largely taboo and can, in some nations, lead to persecution. “It’s mad scary sometimes,” Ana said.The night featured drag performances by Rifi Royalty, who is Egyptian American, and Meh Mooni, who is Iranian American; a set by Felukah; and a belly-dancing contest set to an Egyptian song that is a staple at Arab parties: “Shik Shak Shok.”The following week, the song would be played again at the Sultan Room’s rooftop during Haza, a dance party and radio show that began in 2019 and spotlights artists from the Middle East and African diasporas and beyond.One of its founders, an Egyptian American D.J. and creative writing consultant who performs under the name Myyuh, grew up in a predominantly white town in Connecticut, where she said she was largely detached from Egyptian culture. She felt embarrassed when her mother would blast Arabic music at home, she said.But at Haza, she turned to it for comfort — and blasted it on a pulsating dance floor while fellow Arabs ululated in celebration under the Bushwick sky. (Haza will return to the Sultan Room for its next show on July 29.)“We’re creating a totally different experience with these songs,” Myyuh said.Her co-founder, an Egyptian D.J. and audio engineer who performs under the name Carmen Sandiego, likened the experience to a hug.“It’s everything that you know and love,” she said. “And it’s not just you, but the person next to you is singing the same thing because they understand why this is so meaningful.”For Mr. Shamoun, of Laylit, that experience is particularly important for those who have fled the Middle East amid war, uprisings and refugee crises.“We’ve been robbed of a present and a future in the Arab world,” he said.When he’s behind the decks at his shows, he often spots recent immigrants and hopes the songs he plays transport them back home, if only for a few minutes.As the events continue to generate buzz, few of the promoters appear to be in competition — in fact, most of them collaborate with each other.Ana Masreya performed at a Laylit party earlier this month, drawing cheers from the crowd, while Myyuh was in the D.J. lineup.Mr. Manasseh believes the scene grew out of what he calls an “affirm yourself on the dance floor” movement that took hold after the aughts and grew stronger when Donald J. Trump became president.Rock was suddenly out, dance and electronic music were in, and more people of color and L.G.B.T.Q. people were creating spaces where they felt seen and heard.Even though Laylit is seemingly rooted in faraway cultures, Mr. Manasseh credits its existence to a single city.“All this was inspired and enabled by New York,” he said. More

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      New York’s Dancehall Parties Are ‘A Different Type of Turn Up’

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      This story is part of an occasional series exploring nightlife in New York.CJ Milan was racing around a yacht just after midnight on Sunday, handing out hundreds of foam glow sticks.“When the boat starts moving, we play soca music,” she said with a mischievous smile as she paused for a moment to watch the dance floor. “It gets everybody turned up.”Ms. Milan was running Yacht Fete, a 1,000-person reggae, dancehall, soca and afrobeats party that takes place monthly on the Hudson River.The yacht is just one of the venues that she uses to host her recurring Reggae Fest dance parties, which she started organizing in New York in 2015.The dance floor at Yacht Fete, a monthly party held on a yacht on the Hudson River.DeSean McClinton-Holland for The New York TimesDancehall, a party-friendly byproduct of reggae music with faster tempos and the cadence of hip-hop, came out of Jamaica in the late 1970s.And New York’s dancehall parties, which are often thrown by and for the city’s large Caribbean communities, bring people together on flamboyant dance floors where they can whine, dagger, line dance and drop into full splits.Ms. Milan, who estimates that she has drawn more than 170,000 people to Reggae Fest events in New York over the last seven years, has since expanded the parties to Washington, D.C., Atlanta and Los Angeles.But even as she broadens her reach, she’s still figuring out how to keep picky New York crowds happy.“New York is a different type of turn up,” she said. “We just have so much more to cover music-wise because our city is so diverse.”Partygoers held up foam glowsticks as the yacht left Pier 40 in Lower Manhattan.DeSean McClinton-Holland for The New York TimesShe said that at each of her parties, she tries to have a team of D.J.s ready to play whatever type of music the crowd is responding to most vividly that night.Marvin Smith, who’s known at Reggae Fest as D.J. Legend, said that he plays anything from reggaeton to dancehall to keep people moving.“When I see the hairdos sweated out, when I see people who are looking around like, ‘Where are my keys? Who has my phone?’” Mr. Smith said. “When we see that, we know it’s mission accomplished.”And Ms. Milan said they try to throw something in the mix for every kind of listener.“Dancehall has different levels — some of it is hardcore,” she said, which often appeals to a younger generation. “But then you get the older generation who want to hear Mr. Vegas or Sean Paul.”She added: “Then you got other ones that say, ‘I want that sexy stuff’ — they want to hear what the women have to say,” referring to artists like Spice.Sean Paul performed at Elsewhere, a venue in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, late last month.DeSean McClinton-Holland for The New York TimesYet there are certain shows that bring out dancehall fans of all kinds. As Sean Paul performed at Elsewhere in Bushwick on April 25, the crowd reflected his fan base, spanning an international and intergenerational mix.Paul, 49, a mellow and singular figure who’s responsible for bringing dancehall to American radio stations in the early 2000s, said that his earliest memories of Jamaican dancehall parties are from when he was 14.He would sneak out with friends to a street party called Frontline, where they would often spot dancehall legends like Tiger and Shabba Ranks and dance under the open night sky.“That was the one thing I didn’t like about clubs here at first,” he said. “You can’t see the stars. You can’t feel the moon, there’s no island breeze blowing on your face while you’re listening to some real, authentic rumbling bass lines.”But when he started coming to New York in the late 1990s, he discovered a more “grimy” dancehall scene with audiences for every niche.One of his favorite spots in the early 2000s was a two-story warehouse in Brooklyn where the parquet floors moved “at least a foot” as people danced.Dancing by the bar to Sean Paul. “It’s the only city that I knew at the time where I was able to hit four clubs in one night,” he said of his early trips to New York.DeSean McClinton-Holland for The New York Times“It’s the only city that I knew at the time where I was able to hit four clubs in one night,” he said before rattling off a list of the places he would visit.“Two clubs in Jersey — one is a Jamaican club, and then one is a Guyanese club,” he said. “And then one in Brooklyn, which is a straight hardcore hip-hop type vibe, and the same thing back up in Manhattan.”But many of the clubs that Paul remembered are now long gone. And while smaller spaces that play Caribbean music are still sprinkled around the city, there are only a handful of parties and shows that consistently bring out thousands of people.Cathy Rodriguez, 25, who was at Ms. Milan’s yacht party last weekend, said that she’s been coming to Reggae Fest parties for years.Often traveling up from the Washington area, where she now lives, Ms. Rodriguez said that she’ll sometimes plan her trips around the parties.Tempest Williams, Aniquiana Kurtz, Christina Mejia, Cathy Rodriguez and Maria Traore posed for a photo on the top deck at Yacht Fete.DeSean McClinton-Holland for The New York Times“I will legit just go out of town for Reggae Fest,” she said. “Like, don’t get me wrong, I will go see my family, of course. But I will be like, ‘Yeah, I’m going to New York and we’re going to Reggae Fest.’”Ms. Rodriguez said that one of the main pulls of the event was the chance to hear her favorite music.“Dancehall will always be my first baby,” she said. “Growing up in New York City, particularly in the Bronx, dancehall has always been a huge part of my life. Like my mom listens to dancehall on Sunday morning when she’s cleaning.”And even beyond her favorite songs, what keeps Ms. Rodriguez showing up again and again is the lively dance floor.“In the Caribbean community, we say ‘stush’ a lot, and stush basically means like, standing still,” she said. “I don’t know if you’ve ever been to a regular nightclub in New York City, but people are like standing still, smoking hookah — you know, they’re not really enjoying themselves to the music.”“CJ’s vision when it comes to Reggae Fest is like, ‘I want people to come, I want people to turn up, but I want people to dance,’” she continued. “That’s why I keep going to her events, because it’s guaranteed I’m going to dance my ass off the whole night.” More

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      Will Smith Attends the 2022 Vanity Fair Oscars Party

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      Inside the 2022 Vanity Fair Oscars Party32 PhotosView Slide Show ›Hunter Abrams for The New York TimesBEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — “In 20 years of coming, this is the most fun I’ve ever had,” Adrien Brody, the Oscar-winning actor, said at Vanity Fair’s annual Oscars party on Sunday. “I had real conversations, about politics, life and art.’’For a change at this annual convening of industry luminaries real conversation was all but unavoidable. The primary reason was the train wreck that was Will Smith slapping Chris Rock onstage.“That moment, I can’t talk about it,” said Amy Schumer, who hosted the Oscars with Wanda Sykes and Regina Hall, after chatting with Larry David just outside the tented dance floor. “It was such a big deal and I’m still processing it, and I have to be so careful,” she added, before turning to a cluster of friends for a lifeline. “Somebody get me to stop talking.”It has been nearly 40 years since Tina Brown, the former Vanity Fair editor, conceived of a party that would steal the thunder from Swifty Lazar’s Oscar wingding. Mr. Lazar not only knew how to rope in the stars, Ms. Brown observed in her published diaries. He also domesticated a “menagerie” that attended on his terms or not at all.Trevor Noah, left, greeted Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith at the Vanity Fair Oscars party.Kevin Mazur/WireImage, via Getty ImagesWhen a celebrity of Mr. Smith’s stature acts out in public, it is more than a source of clucking editorials and viral memes. It’s a threat to the fiction of show-business kumbaya. This year’s Vanity Fair party, then, had something of the air of a celebrity campfire circle. Other Oscar parties — such as one given by Madonna and Guy Oseary — may be more intimate and exclusive, but nothing tops Vanity Fair for sheer boldface volume.And so for a few late-night hours in a series of tents, gardens and outdoor lounges at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, the most famous people on the planet mingled, danced, drank and smoked (weed mostly), and proved what a great leveler celebrity can be. It is a universally established truth in Hollywood that at, a certain level of fame, everyone is your best friend.To reach the sanctum, invited guests had to pass through a series of security checkpoints (negative PCR test results were required) and a blue carpet lined with shouting photographers. Some luminous glow worms, including Billie Eilish, Pedro Almodóvar and Jessica Chastain (wearing an emerald-green Gucci dress that evoked Ariel in “The Little Mermaid”), were then immediately diverted to a private studio where Mark Seliger shot their formal portraits.Riz Ahmed, left, and Aziz Ansari.Kevin Mazur/WireImage, via Getty ImagesOthers processed directly into the actual party, where cameras phones and other recording devices had been strictly forbidden. Surprisingly few people flouted the no-phone rules to capture such theatrical moments as Kathy Hilton dancing with Marjorie Gubelmann, a.k.a. DJ Mad Marj, or Bill Murray wearing a jaunty beret, dancing alone.If they stuck around past midnight, they would have caught Will Smith, seemingly unruffled by the controversy he had just stirred up, accompanied by his wife and children, and shimmying to “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It.”They would also have snagged Serena Williams towering over the crowd in a silver minidress, and Zendaya standing beside a potted palm tree and locked in conversation with Timothée Chalamet, both surrounded by a nimbus of marijuana smoke exhaled by an acquaintance.They would have seen Jason Bateman locked in a bro-hug with Kevin Bacon; Jon Hamm momentarily alone near the men’s room looking forlorn as a pound puppy; Kristen Stewart wafting along in a floor-length black lace dress; and Zoë Kravitz chain smoking Marlboros.They would have caught Sarah Paulson shouting, “Dog! Dog! Dog!,” as she shoved past Kate Hudson and Chris Pine to pet a stranger’s fluffy white pooch.From left: Billie Eilish, Kyra Sedgwick, Kevin Bacon, Rami Malek and Alana Haim.Kevin Mazur/WireImage, via Getty ImagesIn the Before Times, it was customary for the most famous to dutifully work the red carpet and make a glad-handing circuit or two, before slipping out to another, presumably better party.Midnight was the traditional witching hour. This time around the mood was more convivial, and for obvious reasons. Two years of separation has taken its toll on the celebrity herd.“People are genuinely happy to see each other again,” said Georgina Chapman, the fashion designer, as partygoers pressed against each other so tightly on their way to one of the tequila bars that it was easy to forget such a thing as social distancing ever existed.“Of course,” Ms. Chapman added, “next week we’ll all get Covid.’” More

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      Inside the 2022 Oscar Governors Ball

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      Ariana DeBose with her Oscar for best supporting actress.Krista Schlueter for The New York TimesJessica Chastain with her best actress award.Krista Schlueter for The New York TimesThe stars of ”CODA,” which won best picture, from left: Amy Forsyth, Daniel Durant, Eugenio Derbez, Emilia Jones, Marlee Matlin and Troy Kotsur.Krista Schlueter for The New York TimesThe Governors Ball is the first stop of the final night of an exhausting and bitter award season, where nominees, both winners and losers, can finally breathe, thankful that their months of staying on brand and on message has come to a close.It takes place just a few escalators up from the Ray Dolby Ballroom itself, a short ride that in most years helps give the party a rarefied feel. Not this year, when all anyone could talk about was the slap seen around the world. It was top of mind for most conversations.“It hijacked the night,” “It was like watching a car crash in real time,” were just some comments uttered by guests.Yet not all of the ball’s attendees let the incident ruin their celebration. Anthony Hopkins, who had the dubious honor of winning best actor in 2020 when everyone thought it was going to Chadwick Boseman, took to a relatively empty dance floor with his wife for an energetic salsa.The scene at the Governors Ball. Krista Schlueter for The New York TimesQueen Latifah and Regina Hall, right, who hosted this year’s Oscars.Krista Schlueter for The New York TimesJacob Elordi of “Euphoria.”Krista Schlueter for The New York TimesIt was a stark contrast to the Apple team, who skedaddled before you could say “truffle mac ‘n’ cheese.” Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg, the Apple executives who oversaw the release of “CODA,” which won for best picture, left early with Tim Cook, the Apple chief executive who attended the ceremony for the first time.The team at Netflix, which was nominated for 27 Oscars and won only one, partied like they were the belles of the ball. Ted Sarandos, the co-chief executive of Netflix, belted out the lyrics to “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” while his marketing associate Albert Tello mugged with Jane Campion’s best director Oscar for “The Power of the Dog.” Ms. Campion swayed with Lisa Nishimura, another Netflix executive, while D.J. D-Nice kept the tunes going.Ari Wegner, who lost out on making history as the first female cinematographer to win an Oscar, didn’t appear worse for wear, thrilled that Ms. Campion nabbed the prize. “All of our nominations are her,” Ms. Wegner said, adding that if it weren’t for Ms. Campion, none of them would have been in that room. “I have nothing at all to complain about.”Kenneth Branagh, left, and Francis Ford Coppola.Krista Schlueter for The New York TimesJane Campion with her Oscar for best director.Krista Schlueter for The New York TimesBenedict Cumberbatch and Sophie Hunter.Krista Schlueter for The New York TimesMs. Wegner, who had been in the United States for over a month campaigning, was eager to get back to her home in Australia, comparing the campaign season to being on a movie shoot. “You have no agency over your life for a bit,” she said with a pause. “I would happily do it again.”D-Nice’s tunes got the cast of “Power of the Dog” onto the dance floor, including Kodi Smit-McPhee, who was holding a rose — either a deliberate or inadvertent nod to his character.Benedict Cumberbatch found his parents on a couple of high-backed stools, gave them a kiss and escorted them out. It may have served as the cue to leave.Moments later Ms. Campion began her exit, parting the dance floors with people on either side chanting “Jane, Jane, Jane.” She held up her Oscar in triumph and waltzed out the door.From left: Maya Rudolph, Renate Reinsve and Bill Murray.Krista Schlueter for The New York TimesTed Sarandos, the chief executive of Netflix.Krista Schlueter for The New York TimesFrom left: Billie Eilish, Questlove and Finneas O’Connell.Krista Schlueter for The New York Times More

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      Nicole Kidman and Sophia Loren at Armani Pre-Oscars Party

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      BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — At the culmination of an intense and monthslong Oscars awards season, Hollywood took up where it left off before the pandemic and became a maskless, glittering free-for-all.Fashion labels like Saint Laurent, Chanel and Gucci and powerhouse talent agencies like CAA competed with tech Goliaths like Apple to score the best restaurants, most elegant party spaces and the rarest specimens from among the celebrity coterie.The consensus is not yet in on who won the race for best wingding. Some parties were so scrupulously private — like CAA’s at the San Vicente Bungalows club on Friday — that only megacelebrities like Elon Musk, Leonardo DiCaprio and Taylor Swift were invited to graze a buffet of roast salmon, pulled pork, chicken curry and mini meringues.But Hollywood also hungrily eats its own history, as the writer and producer Mitch Glazer once wrote, and often upstages the talent itself.Sophia Loren was at the Giorgio Armani party celebrating Nicole Kidman. Krista Schlueter for The New York TimesSofia Pernas and Justin Hartley.Krista Schlueter for The New York TimesBarbara PalvinKrista Schlueter for The New York TimesA case in point was Saturday’s party for the reopening of the Giorgio Armani flagship on Rodeo Drive, a glamorous mosh pit in which hundreds of those from the Juvéderm and micro-mini face-lift set jostled for breathing space.They sipped Veuve Clicquot Champagne or iced Limoncello and ogled the assorted show people — Adrien Brody, Mira Sorvino, Annabelle Wallis, Miles Teller and Dylan Sprouse — who came out on a cool California evening. No matter whom anyone was talking to, all eyes were on the front door awaiting the arrival of Nicole Kidman, the evening’s honored guest.A ripple ran through the room when Ms. Kidman — an Oscar nominee for her role as Lucille Ball in “Being the Ricardos” — swept in at 5:52 p.m., surrounded by a security phalanx and Kevin Huvane, the co-chair of CAA, in fullback form at the lead.Alan KimKrista Schlueter for The New York TimesRegé-Jean PageKrista Schlueter for The New York TimesAdrien BrodyKrista Schlueter for The New York TimesDressed in a black Armani pantsuit, a décolleté embroidered bustier and flats (“I wanted to wear man’s clothes,” she told this reporter) to offset her commanding height, Ms. Kidman immediately sequestered herself in a corner wedged between a case of velvet clutches and a rack of beaded frocks.With her unlined and poreless, bisque-doll complexion and her startled Dresden-blue eyes, she seemed too preternaturally glamorous to fit her characterization of herself, in a recent Vanity Fair article, as an “oddball.”Explore the 2022 Academy AwardsThe 94th Academy Awards will be held on March 27 in Los Angeles.Oscars Preview: Looking to catch up quickly on all the basics ahead of the event? This guide can help. The Hosts: Regina Hall and Wanda Sykes plan to keep the show moving and make it funny, though they will acknowledge the war in Ukraine.A Win for Streaming: A streaming service film could win the Oscar for best picture for the first time. A few years ago, it would have been hard to imagine.‘Seen That Before?’: Four of the best picture nominees this year are remakes or reboots of earlier films.Best Actress Race: Who will win? There are cases to be made for and against each contender, and no one has an obvious advantage.“Oh, I am an oddball,” Ms. Kidman said flatly, when asked about her self-assessment. “I’m an introvert. I think laterally — always have and always will.”Ms. Kidman is 54 and first starred as a leading actress in a film 33 years ago. Such a feat of show-business survival would seem hard to surpass. Yet 20 minutes after she arrived, the crowd parted again, this time for the arrival of Sophia Loren, who made her first cinematic appearance seven decades ago.From left: Thuso Mbedu, Justice Smith and Cameo Adele.Krista Schlueter for The New York TimesKathy HiltonKrista Schlueter for The New York TimesChampagne and merch.Krista Schlueter for The New York TimesNo matter what doomsayers may say about a crumbling dream machine, the impress of these luminous beings on our cultural consciousness is forever. Sure, shifting technologies will alter how fantasy is delivered. The appetite for it will always remain.Consider a spontaneous scene that erupted when the mob clamoring outside the Armani party spotted a tuxedo two-tone convertible Rolls-Royce cruising up Rodeo Drive, top down and Mark Wahlberg behind the wheel. Suddenly those in the crowd surged into the street to surround the vehicle, “The Day of the Locust”-style, with smartphone cameras hungrily fixing him in their sights.Mr. Wahlberg grinned like a tanned and benevolent deity accepting tribute, as the street echoed with the cries of strangers shouting his name: “Mark! Mark! Mark!’’Exotic Creatures at ChanelAt the Chanel dinner: Charles Finch greeting Joan Collins, as Taika Waititi took a sip.Hunter Abrams for The New York TimesHarvey Keitel, center, and Paolo Sorrentino.Hunter Abrams for The New York TimesKristen Stewart, center.Hunter Abrams for The New York TimesDepending on one’s vantage point, women either have all the fun or are stuck with the heavy lifting when it comes to Oscars dressing.Harvey Keitel was fine cruising into Chanel’s annual pre-Oscars dinner on Saturday, held in the gardens of the Beverly Hills Hotel and its storied Polo Lounge, wearing a basic black jacket and sandals. It was socially acceptable for both Charles Finch, the co-host of the starry, hot-ticket evening, and Jamie Dornan to wear white shirts with the collars left deeply unbuttoned. Chris Pine elicited oohs and aahs in nothing more special than a rumpled linen suit out of Don Johnson’s “Miami Vice” closet.Women don’t have it nearly so easy, even with Chanel munificently providing some of them with their party glad rags.Our Reviews of the 10 Best-Picture Oscar NomineesCard 1 of 10“Belfast.” More

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      Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Riz Ahmed Toast South Asians at Pre-Oscars Party

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      South Asians in Hollywood celebrate their achievements this year.BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — The dirty secret about film industry parties is that they’re rarely fun. Hardly anyone feels like they’re in with the in-crowd. There’s a lot of posturing, peacocking and busying oneself with one’s phone.The opposite was true at a party to celebrate the achievements of South Asians in this year’s Oscars race on Wednesday night.Three weeks ago, Maneesh K. Goyal, a New York restaurateur, was talking with Anjula Acharia, who is Priyanka Chopra Jonas’s manager, and Shruti Ganguly, a film producer. “We realized there were 10 Oscar nominees of South Asian descent this year,” Mr. Goyal said. “My immediate response: ‘We should throw a party.’”Ms. Chopra Jonas signed on as a host, and so did Mindy Kaling, Kumail Nanjiani and Bela Bajaria, the head of global TV at Netflix. The United Talent Agency offered its Beverly Hills offices.“I wasn’t sure if we’d be in a conference room, or something,” said Richa Moorjani, a star of “Never Have I Ever,” who wore an embroidered blazer and matching pants by a Dubai label named OTT.The party was held at the United Talent Agency offices in Beverly Hills.Krista Schlueter for The New York TimesJanina GavankarKrista Schlueter for The New York TimesPoorna Jagannathan, center, and Radhika Jones, right.Krista Schlueter for The New York TimesNo beige carpeting here: Around 5 p.m., guests filtered into an airy courtyard with a gazebo decked out in gold streamers. They were proud to be in one another’s presence. “To have this depth of talent, to have enough nominees to throw a party, this was not the case five years ago,” Ms. Bajaria said. “It’s not just writers, directors and on-screen talent. There are agents, assistants and executives” — like herself — “who have green-light authority.”As Ms. Bajaria surveyed the crowd of 125, the actress Poorna Jagannathan sidled over and grabbed her arm. “Have you seen the new Indian Barbie?” Ms. Jagannathan said, referring to the limited-edition doll released for Women’s History Month, and who Ms. Jagannathan thinks Ms. Bajaria looks like (“I’m not so sure about that,” Ms. Bajaria said).Who needs plastic when real world role models abound? At the bar: Radhika Jones, the Vanity Fair editor, in a Falguni & Shane Peacock dress, and Noora Raj Brown, Goop’s head of communications. By the step-and-repeat: Janina Gavankar, of “The Morning Show,” in a fuchsia crop top and trousers, and the comedian Lilly Singh, in a suit with fringe cuffs.Under the streamers: Aziz Ansari, the comedian and actor who recently released a Netflix special; Manish Dayal, who stars in the medical drama “The Resident”; and Riz Ahmed, the actor and rapper, who is up for two Oscars this year, for the short film “The Long Goodbye” and the animated feature “Flee.”Riz Ahmed gave a speech.Krista Schlueter for The New York TimesLilly Singh and Jay Sean, right.Krista Schlueter for The New York TimesThe aloo tikki station.Krista Schlueter for The New York Times“It’s really emboldening when you’re surrounded by people who share your experience,” Mr. Ahmed said, addressing the party as pink streaked the sky.Collaborations were discussed. (“Make business plans,” Ms. Chopra Jonas said.) Trade secrets were disclosed. (“If you need an Indian outfit, Kynah is a one-stop shop,” Ms. Moorjani said.)Although the party officially ended at 8, dozens of guests lingered for another hour, even though the aloo tikki station and bar had closed.“A lot of us grew up trying to hide our racial identity and culture,” said the actor Adrian Dev (“Westworld”), who wore a navy blue sherwani. “Now I’m the exact opposite.” More

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      Will Smith Calls Bradley Cooper ‘Beautiful’ at National Board of Review Gala

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      “Licorice Pizza” was the big winner at the annual National Board of Review film awards.The National Board of Review awards gala is not televised. This fact was announced onstage by its host Craig Melvin and giddily repeated by several guests.The awards gala is among the last in the run-up to this year’s Oscars and, free of television, the night has a reputation for speeches that are chummy, quite long and laced with profanity. This year’s gala, at Cipriani 42nd Street on Tuesday night, did not disappoint.“We just have a rip-roaring good time,” said Annie Schulhof, the board’s president.Alana Haim, left, and Cooper Hoffman accepted the award for breakthrough performance in “Licorice Pizza.”Rebecca Smeyne for The New York TimesIlda Mason starred in “West Side Story.”Rebecca Smeyne for The New York TimesFrom left: Bradley Cooper, Zazie Beatz and Spike Lee.Rebecca Smeyne for The New York TimesThe guests included film executives, producers and a smattering of big-name stars like Julianne Moore, and many in the crowd made ample use of the complimentary Bellinis offered by a phalanx of servers in white jackets. There were also three open bars, along with free-flowing wine poured during the steak and shrimp salad dinner.The speeches delivered on the promise of backslapping and swear words but — mercifully — tended toward brevity.Will Smith, who was awarded best actor for his performance in “King Richard,” took the stage around 8:15 p.m. and pointed to Bradley Cooper at a nearby table. “I can’t even concentrate, he’s so beautiful,” he said.Alana Haim also gave Mr. Cooper a shout-out when she accepted her award for best breakthrough performance in “Licorice Pizza,” which she shared with Cooper Hoffman. “It means so much to have Bradley Cooper give us this award because you were actually the first real actor we had ever acted with,” said Ms. Haim, who wore a sleeveless, Kelly-green gown by Marni. She also referred to the cast and crew as “family.”Questlove accepted the best documentary award for “Summer of Soul.”Rebecca Smeyne for The New York TimesChris Rock, left, and Paul Thomas Anderson, who won for best director for “Licorice Pizza.”Rebecca Smeyne for The New York TimesJulianne MooreRebecca Smeyne for The New York TimesMarcus Samuelsson, the chef and television personality, took the “family” trope one step further, referring to Spike Lee as “Uncle Spike” for inspiring him to become a chef. Mr. Lee wore a hat that looked like a chef’s toque when he introduced Questlove, who won best documentary for “Summer of Soul.”Ilda Mason, who wore a white Naeem Khan gown adorned with beaded flowers, accepted the best actress award on behalf of her “West Side Story” castmate Rachel Zegler (she was shooting on location for “Snow White”). Ms. Mason’s voice cracked with emotion when she read her friend’s thank you message from her phone.As the ceremony drew to a close around 9:30, Chris Rock presented Paul Thomas Anderson with the award for best director for “Licorice Pizza,” the night’s big winner. He bemoaned the National Review Board for being “so cheap they don’t have a prompter.” “I’m coming here for Paul Thomas Anderson, a person who has never cast me in anything,” he said, using stronger language. “Not even to wash his car,” he added. More