Oscar Night Party - Trivia Games

Oscar Night Party  A friend and I threw a ladies-only Oscar Party.  Invitations were printed on gold paper and cut into the shape of Oscar. 

Guests were asked to wear "jammies and jewels"-- their most comfortable clothing, and their gawdiest, most Hollywood-like jewelry. 

We enclosed an official ballot from Oscar.com with the invitations so that guests could vote for their picks before arriving (we chose our top 10 favorite categories). 

For decorations, we got red plastic tablecloths which we lined up the walkway from the sidewalk, up the stairs and right up to the front door, with luminaries on both sides.   Inside the front door, we had a display of pictures (cut from People magazine, etc) of all the current nominees on black posterboard.  

We also had a table set up with old, fancy jewelry and long gloves.  My friend's husband made us a mini Oscar out of gold foil which looked just like the real thing.  We had each guest pose with him in front of the jewelry display and took a Polaroid for her to take home. 

For food, we had each guest bring an appetizer with a Hollywood name. . . Some favorites were Million Dollar Baby Shrimp, Electric Cowboy Caviar, and Sideways Salsa.  We made an Oscar Martini Menu, with Gwyneth's Baby Martini (Apple), Lemony Snickets Martini (Lemon), and Last Tango in Paris Martini (Tango Martini).  We also had a Life is Beautiful option-- a Roberto Benigni Bellini (fruit juice and champagne). 

During the awards we kept track of everyone's picks on a big whiteboard next to the TV.  We had 3 different trivia games with 5 questions each which we passed out during long commercials and some of the less-exciting awards.   

The first two were based on Oscar history, and the last one was based on things that happened during this year's show (like "were there any previous year's hosts present at the ceremony?"  and "what was the first thing the host said?" and "who was Tom Hanks sitting next to?"  and "what color was Hillary Swank's dress?")  I wrote down the answers as the show was going on, and guests filled them out right before the Best Picture Award.    We gave prizes for each of the 3 trivia rounds, best jewels, and of course, most correct picks. 

We gave girly prizes:  Bath and Body stuff for the trivia, notecards with fancy shoes and hats for "Best Jewels," and the Grand Prize Winner (for most correct picks) received a microwave popcorn bucket(from Blockbuster) loaded with movie-size candy (bought at Walmart--very cheap there) and a gift card for one rental from Blockbuster. 

For favors, each guest took home their Polaroid with Oscar, and a mini bottle of champagne with the date of the party in gold paint and gold ribbon curled around it. 

We had a great time and plan to make it an annual event.