Oscar nominees luncheon: stars gather ahead of the 2019 Academy Awards

Awards hopefuls gather for lunch ahead of the February 24 ceremony

Lady Gaga arrives for the 91st Oscars Nominees Luncheon at the Beverly Hilton hotel. Gaga is nominated for Best Lead Actress for 'A Star is Born'. AFP

Rami Malek arrives for the 91st Oscars Nominees Luncheon at the Beverly Hilton hotel. Malek is nominated for Best Lead Actor for his role in 'Bohemian Rhapsody'. AFP

Mahershala Ali arrives for the 91st Oscars Nominees Luncheon at the Beverly Hilton hotel. Ali is nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role in 'Green Book'. AFP

Nadine Labaki arrives with her husband, Khaled Mouzanar, arrives for the 91st Oscars Nominees Luncheon at the Beverly Hilton hotel. Director, Labaki, is nominated for Best Foreign Language Film for 'Capernaum'. AFP

Bradley Cooper arrives for the 91st Oscars Nominees Luncheon at the Beverly Hilton hotel. Cooper is nominated for Best Actor for his role in 'A Star is Born'. EPA

Glenn Close arrives for the 91st Oscars Nominees Luncheon at the Beverly Hilton hotel. Close is nominated for Best Actress for her role in 'The Wife'. EPA

Amy Adams arrives for the 91st Oscars Nominees Luncheon at the Beverly Hilton hotel. Adams is nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role in 'Vice'. EPA

Rachel Weisz arrives for the 91st Oscars Nominees Luncheon at the Beverly Hilton hotel. Weisz is nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role in 'The Favourite'. EPA

Viggo Mortensen arrives for the 91st Oscars Nominees Luncheon at the Beverly Hilton hotel. Mortensen is nominated for Best Lead Actor for his role in 'Green Book'. AFP

Melissa McCarthy arrives for the 91st Oscars Nominees Luncheon at the Beverly Hilton hotel. McCarthy is nominated for Best Actrress for her role in 'Can You Ever Forgive Me?'. EPA

Yalitza Aparicio arrives for the 91st Oscars Nominees Luncheon at the Beverly Hilton hotel. Aparicio is nominated for Best Lead Actress for her role in 'Roma'. AFP

Mark Ronson arrives for the 91st Oscars Nominees Luncheon at the Beverly Hilton hotel. Ronson is nominated for Best Original Song for 'Shallow' from 'A Star is Born'. AFP

Laura Dern arrives for the 91st Oscars Nominees Luncheon at the Beverly Hilton hotel. AFP

Regina King arrives for the 91st Oscars Nominees Luncheon at the Beverly Hilton hotel. King is nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role in 'If Beale Street Could Talk'. AFP

Richard E Grant arrives for the 91st Oscars Nominees Luncheon at the Beverly Hilton hotel. Grant is nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role in 'Can You Ever Forgive Me?'. EPA

Spike Lee arrives for the 91st Oscars Nominees Luncheon at the Beverly Hilton hotel. Warren is nominated for Best Director for 'BlacKkKlansman'. EPA

Jaime Ray Newman arrives for the 91st Oscars Nominees Luncheon at the Beverly Hilton hotel. Newman is nominated for Best Live Action Short Film for 'Skin'. EPA

Sam Elliot arrives for the 91st Oscars Nominees Luncheon at the Beverly Hilton hotel. Elliot is nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role in 'A Star is Born'. EPA

Marina de Tavira arrives for the 91st Oscars Nominees Luncheon at the Beverly Hilton hotel. Tavira is nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role in 'Roma'. EPA

Diane Warren arrives for the 91st Oscars Nominees Luncheon at the Beverly Hilton hotel. Warren is nominated for Best Original Song for 'I'll Fight' from 'RGB'. EPA

Lynette Howell Taylor arrives for the 91st Oscars Nominees Luncheon at the Beverly Hilton hotel. Taylor producer of Best Picture nominee 'A Star is Born'. AFP

Nominees for the 91st Academy Awards gathered at the Beverly Hilton hotel in California for the annual Oscar Nominees Luncheon on Monday February 4.

Click through the gallery above to see Oscar hopefuls arriving at the annual luncheon. 

Three weeks ahead of the awards on February 24, nominees from across the categories attended the private luncheon, where all in attendance gathered for a "class photo".

See a larger version here.

More than just a lunch, for those in the industry, it's an occasion to "mingle". The event often creates a fascinating mix of film stars and newcomers, as nominees are often seated with a range of people from films that aren't necessarily their own. One table had Amy Adams, Black Panther costume designer Ruth E Carter and Bao director Domee Shi. Another had Lady Gaga, Black Panther producer Kevin Feige, jazz trumpeter Terence Blanchard, nominated for BlacKkKlansman, and Hale County This Morning, This Evening director RaMell Ross.

Prepare for a slick ceremony at the 2019 Academy Awards 

At the 2019 ceremony, there will be no presenter to ensure things run smoothly, so winners have been told that this year they have to keep their acceptance speeches short.

Producers told nominees they will have 90 seconds from the time their name is called to the moment their speech will need to end. The sprint is necessary in order to keep the February 24 ceremony to three hours, John Bailey, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President, said at the lunch.

"It means you can hit the parties by 8.15pm," Oscars producer Glenn Weiss joked to the room.

Weiss and his co-producer Donna Gigliotti demonstrated their ideal acceptance speech – Steven Soderbergh accepting the best director award for Traffic and promising to offer individual thanks in private, not public – and implored nominees to speak from the heart and not a sheet of paper.

"The thing is, run," said director Brad Bird, who has learned from experience. "Then keep your speeches short and simple as possible ... and then you get out alive."