Key events
Morwenna Ferrier
Ever the wallflower, Arden Cho of K-pop Demon Hunters is wearing a dramatic fishtail gown by Miss Sohee with an olive green sleeve-train.
This feels like a good segue into this year’s rug which is… red. For something nudging 50,000 sq ft, you’d think there would be some consistency on the colour. For the most part, it’s been red since 1961. It’s even named after it, Academy Red, though it’s closer in fact to burgundy. Then came 2023’s champagne-coloured carpet, which felt a bit on the nose (and got very dirty very quickly). It was actually prompted by the weather – they had to erect a tent over the carpet which turned out to be orange and that would have been a bit of a clash.
Vis a vis the gowns, none of this matters says Melanie Wilkinson, our Guardian styling editor. “The red carpet dresses are so hard to get right, I think whether the dress goes well with the carpet or not is probably the last consideration”.
She did, however, suggest people avoid green.
(In case you were wondering, once the ceremony is over the carpet, the carpet is destroyed in an undisclosed manner)
Stuart Heritage
Perhaps slightly better is the Associated Press video, which is trained on attendees posing for the cameras. Obviously it’s worth pointing out that currently it’s a video of attendees who are willing to arrive at a ceremony two full hours before it actually begins, so maybe don’t brace yourself for too many A-listers just yet, but it’s better than nothing.
Stuart Heritage
A quick word for UK readers. British television coverage of the run-up to the ceremony is a bit meagre and austere this year, so you won’t find much in the way of red carpet footage. However, there are live YouTube videos for us to monitor. There is this one, for example, which for the time being seems to solely consist of bored-looking reporters sullenly looking at their phones. But it will probably pick up in time.
Morwenna Ferrier
Hello from the Guardian’s fashion desk! Lauren and I will be tracking the gowns and jackets and shoes (and pins?) on the Oscars red carpet tonight.
The greatest honour tonight is, of course, taking home an award. But given that stylists have arguably replaced editors as the most powerful brokers of taste, it would be a shame (and dull) to ignore the clothes which are an extraordinarily well choreographed culmination of months of plotting and liaising and strategising. There will be a lot of Chanel because there is a new designer, Mathieu Blazy, and everyone wants to be part of his cabal. Ditto Dior. And Prada, which is the go-to brand if you fancy yourself as a bit of a kook.
It’s worth pointing out what they wear is not really about personal expression. The stylist-to-celebrity pipeline is a highly engineered marketing machine where celebrities borrow gowns, brands pay people to wear their stuff and fashion houses battle for visibility.
Try not to let that put you off though – and enjoy the frocks!
And the Oscar goes to … you! And us!
Stuart Heritage
Hello world, and welcome to The Guardian’s liveblog of the 2026 Oscars. This is the biggest night of the year for the film industry, and maybe like the 70th biggest night of the year for everyone else.
Actually that might not be true. In an unprecedented move, this year’s ceremony will centre around a clutch of films that people have actually seen, led by the triptych of One Battle After Another, Marty Supreme and Sinners. Combined these films have grossed over three quarters of a billion dollars. That might not seem much – they basically add up to 8/10ths of the Lilo & Stitch remake – but compare that to last year, when everything was won by Anora (one 18th of a Lilo & Stitch remake) and you can see how populist things are this time around.
A quick word on how things will go this evening, using UK times to avoid confusion. As we speak, the least famous of this year’s attendees are starting to drift towards the Dolby Theater, which means that we’ll be bringing you all the red carpet looks as they trickle in. Some hours later, at 11pm UK time, the ceremony will begin, and we will liveblog every moment until it finally wraps up at some point in the early morning. And then after that we’ll still be liveblogging reactions and news until long after the sun comes up.
So strap in, get caffeinated and let’s all get through this together. Thanks for being here.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/film/live/2026/mar/15/oscars-2026-live-updates-red-carpet-ceremony-winners
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