Awards show season is the ultimate excuse to get together with friends and celebrate the best in music and film, all while indulging in creative food and over-the-top outfits. Whether you’re tuning into the Grammys, the Oscars, or any other star-studded event, your watch party will be trophy-worthy with this guide.
A standout party deserves a menu that steals the spotlight — why not let this year’s award nominations take the lead? If you hate puns, I suggest you skip the next few sentences (or if I’m being honest, this entire section). Consider yourself warned.
For a Grammys-themed main course, Billie Eilish and FINNEAS’s Birds of a Feather can inspire a selection of wings that’ll have guests flocking to the table. If you’re looking for elevated pub classics, pick up Underground Tap & Grill’s duck or chicken wings. Kill two birds with one stone with breaded and naked wings for both hard and soft textures — a nod to the album’s title, and for meat alternatives, Orii Vegan & Vegetarian Market has plant-based options. For dessert or drinks, Sabrina Carpenter’s Espresso makes tiramisu and espresso martinis a no-brainer — Bar Oro Caffè and Roastery is a great downtown option for all your espresso needs. Plus, these award shows are lengthy, so caffeine’s always a good idea to keep you going until the very end.
Bring the Oscars into the mix with a menu inspired by this year’s colourful nominations. Match red and white burrata-stuffed Campari tomatoes to Conclave’s cardinals. The film is set in Vatican City, so bonus points for the Italian dish. The Italian Centre is a great choice to grab some of these ingredients. Add a touch of Wicked’s whimsy to your favourite salad greens with thinly sliced pink radishes, and recreate the iconic yellow brick road at the dessert table with lemon bars.
For timeless options, bring Hollywood’s Walk of Fame to your home with star-shaped fruit pieces on skewers, or reference red carpet fashion with bow tie pasta salad. And of course, popcorn is an easy-to-make classic, served in those iconic red-and-white buckets.
Keep your watch party interactive — and competitive, depending on your crowd — with games that’ll keep the energy high and the stakes higher.
If you’re still catching up on the nominated music or films, bingo’s your best bet. Create randomized cards based on the nominations — who will win, who will lose — and let fate decide. If you’re more interested in the fashion, have the bingo squares cover bold red carpet looks and style statements.
Know the nominations well? Try predicting wins and losses via ballots. And if you’re a long-time award show watcher, pull out some trivia. What’s the time limit for Oscars acceptance speeches? When was the first live Grammys ceremony televised? Adapt the trivia questions to whatever award show you’re watching, or even to the celebrities on the screen. Maneki Print can help you customize and print out some game cards for the big night.
What’s a game without prizes? Up the stakes with some gambling or keep the fire friendly and have prizes set aside. Consider a gift certificate to a movie theatre or streaming service, movie theatre snacks, a disposable camera to capture an upcoming concert, and the most valuable — bragging rights.
Celebrities on the carpet may convince you to change from casual to chic for the evening.
If you’re a seasoned award show watcher, recreate your favourite past awards show looks. Careful, though — if you’re thinking of Lady Gaga’s 2012 meat dress, you might have trouble keeping guests through the night. If watching the Oscars, you can recreate looks based on the outfits in the nominated films. I’ve been eyeing the Conclave cardinals’ fashionable robes, so you’ll have to choose something else or one of us will have to change.
If you prefer to set your own trends, head to one of Edmonton’s local thrift stores in the days leading up to the party to find bold, red-carpet-worthy attire (or if your parents are like mine and never throw anything away, their closets always double as at-home thrift stores).
Watching award shows together offers a unique opportunity to celebrate the arts as a community. Dan Smith, executive director at Metro Cinema, says sharing these moments with others is a “richer experience” that parallels going to the movie theatre.
“The experience of laughing at the same jokes with 20, 30, 50, or 100 other people in an auditorium is different than watching it at home alone and laughing on your couch by yourself. The experience of sitting in absolute pin-drop silence with 100 other people is really powerful. You can’t have that experience in silence, at home alone — there’s something powerful about it.”
Award season buzz, even on the global scale, impact the local Edmonton community. These shows “help put these films into the public discourse — they put them on people’s minds. We’re all talking about them in anticipation of these award shows. We see more people come out to watch these films… it definitely does drive people into the theatres to figure out what other people are talking about.”
Award shows are celebrations of lifelong passion projects. When you hear moving acceptance speeches (Ke Huy Quan, I’m talking about yours) it’s hard not to feel inspired. This feeling can be channeled into getting involved in the local arts scene.
“Figure out what you like and go and check it out — and then maybe try something that you’ve never seen before. If you’ve never been to the ballet, go check it out. Or if you really like visual art, but you’ve never been to the gallery, go check it out,” he says. “It’s about getting out there and just experiencing it — it’s good for you, and it’s good for the art scene.”
Metro Cinema is screening a number of full-length Oscar-nominated films, and the Edmonton International Film Festival (EIFF) will screen Oscar-nominated short films at the historic theatre at the end of February and the beginning of March. The EIFF will also hold a live broadcast of the Oscars at the Matrix Hotel.
Groove to the Grammys on Feb. 2, opt for the Oscars on March 2, or tune into another awards show of your choice in the coming months.
