Unless Your Oscar Gathering Is Televised, No Need to Stress Out

Like a best picture nominee, you want your Oscar party to be memorable but not over the top. Original but hip. You want it to look effortless yet still have perfectly placed--never gratuitous--special effects. You want it to be, well, Oscar worthy.

And you’re stressing out.

“Don’t take it too seriously,” says Jeffrey Best, whose company, Best Events, is handling this year’s post-Academy Awards Miramax parties. “Everyone can feel it when the host is trying too hard.”

“When you look at the pages of some magazines, you can feel a lot of pressure to have a certain kind of party. Forget it,” adds Marc Friedland, whose party planning business Creative Intelligence helps Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson with their annual bash, among others.

But remember this: A party’s success lies not in its grand gestures but in the details. For an Oscar party, you could send an invitation inside a round film canister, says Friedland, who is also noted for his upscale invitations.

Roll out a red carpet at the front door. (You can pick up red remnants at a fabric store.) Or, says Colin Cowie, whose Colin Cowie Lifestyle produces Elton John’s Oscar bashes, forgo the red carpet and put out a red lightbulb instead.

As guests arrive, hand out Hollywood’s trademark libation--martinis--while playing music from the soundtracks of nominated films. Have guests set their drinks on best picture coasters, which you can make by cutting ads for the films out of trade magazines. Reduce or enlarge them so they’re roughly 3 inches square, then color copy and laminate them, says Friedland.

Strips of film make great streamers and table runners, he adds. Wrap them in and around miniature Oscar statues and movie-scene clapboards, both available at many party supply stores. For more colorful streamers, get strips of leader film, the colored portions that precede the actual film, which are available at film stores.

Of course you’ll have ballots, a mainstay of every Oscar party, on which guests vote for their picks of the night. Give the winner a theme-related prize: a DVD or soundtrack of one of the movies, a year’s supply of popcorn, or movie passes.

And play paparazzi, says Friedland. Have one or several Polaroid cameras around and snap candid shots of guests. Frame the photos in paper picture frames with captions, such as: “I’m ready for my close-up,” or “It’s an honor just to be nominated.”

“The evening’s about having fun and being very comfortable,” says Cowie. “People are going to come over and spend four to five hours watching TV. You want to have lots of seating and pillows around and make sure everyone has a good view of the screen.”

Or screens, says Best, who recommends setting up several televisions because you’ll have two types of guests: those who take the awards seriously and those who like to yak during acceptance speeches. “Let those who are really into it have their own TV.”

These are small touches but worth the effort, says Friedland. “Years from now, whether your guests remember the Oscar winners that year, they’ll definitely remember the time they had at your home.”

You hope.