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We’ll be posting the festive details and pictures here on the Sequoia Productions website. We’ll have lots of incredible peeks at the décor, menu, fashion, music and florals. You can also visit our Facebook page  or Twitter feed to stay in-the-loop on our breaking Oscar Governors Ball updates – as well as score yourself some of your very own Oscar swag! Enter our contests online and WIN. Because what’s a party without party favors? Stay tuned…

If Martin Scorcese’s “Hugo” is getting your vote for Best Picture, there’s a lot you can do to put your favorite film front and center. Go with a posters of Paris in the 30’s, or maps of Paris streets and the Metro. Put on some background tunes by Edith Piaf or Maurice Chevalier until the show starts, and greet your guests with a glass of French champagne as they come in.

If you’re more in Woody Allen’s camp and “Midnight in Paris” is your frontrunner, your décor could be as simple as pulling out your copies of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Hemingway books and setting them about. Songs from the 1930’s by the likes of Cole Porter and Josephine Baker will be right on point. For fun, take the battery out of your wall clock and set it to Midnight!

Whichever film is your theme pick, you can’t go wrong with the menu. French fare can be the perfect party food. Put together an interesting cheese platter with Brie, Camembert, Chevre (tangy goat’s milk cheese) and a strong blue cheese, such as Roquefort. Serve with olives, nuts, dried berries – anything you feel is a nice compliment to your cheese board.

When it’s time for dinner, quiches and vegetable tarts are great make-ahead options. But if you’re in the mood for something heartier, consider serving a typical French dish such as Chicken Provencal. It serves a large crowd, is easy to make ahead of your party, and keeps well on the stove for whenever guests are hungry. No stress about getting that soufflé out of the oven at the perfect time! Serve your dish with crusty baguettes and a simple salad on the side. To top it off, a few bottles of a good red wine or, of course, more French champagne!

For dessert, go the tasty yet simple route. Consider a varied assortment of items from your local bakery: éclairs, cream puffs, fruit tarts or better yet, French macaroons.  For those with a chocolate craving, a box of truffles should round out your dessert table nicely!

Then settle in, enjoy the show and let the Team Scorcese/Team Allen contest begin!

For the first party in our series, we’re putting the focus on Alexander Payne’s “The Descendents.” Is this charming, yet bitingly honest, George Clooney starrer your pick for Best Picture? If so, consider making this year’s get-together a Hawaiian-themed bash.

Convey to your guests it’s a fun, casual affair and have them dress in Hawaiian shirts. People always seem to cut loose when they’re wearing an overly floral ensemble! Pick up some flower leis. Then welcome each guest with a lei and a tropical drink (think Mai-Tai or Pina Colada) as they come in the door. If you need additional seating for watching the broadcast, Tommy Bahama beach chairs with plush towels can be just the right touch.

As for food, if suckling pig is a tad ambitious, consider Mahimahi with Citrus Sauce. If you are feeling more adventurous when it comes to the cocktails, have fun adding a few new ones to the standard drinks mentioned above. How about the Lava Pit or the Kona Coffee-tini? Don’t forget the festive umbrella for each drink!

After all the winners have claimed their golden statuettes, finish off the night with a decadent dessert, Baked Hawaiian Islands.

Stay tuned for our next set of ideas in our Best Picture ~ Best Oscar Party Series, and don’t forget to incorporate Cheryl’s tips for your luau.

Aloha!

Photo Courtesy of Island Grooms

Ingredients

• 6 oz. pizza dough
• 1 tbsp. chili and garlic oil
• ¹/₄ cup red onion, thinly sliced
• 2 tbsp. dill cream
• 2 ¹/₂ oz. smoked salmon, thinly sliced
• 1 tsp. fresh chives, chopped
• 1 tbsp. Sevruga caviar, optional

Directions

1. Place a pizza stone on the middle rack of the oven and preheat the oven to 500°F.
2. On a lightly floured surface, stretch or roll out the dough into an 8- inch circle, with the outer edge a little thicker than the inner circle.
3. Brush the dough with the oil and arrange the onions over the pizza.
4. Slide a pizza paddle or rimless baking sheet under the pizza and then slide the pizza onto the pizza stone. Bake until the crust is golden brown, 6 to 8 minutes.
5. With the pizza paddle or a large spatula, carefully remove the pizza from the oven and set it on a cutting board. Use a knife, an icing spatula, or the back of a spoon to spread the Dill Cream over the inner circle.
6. Arrange the slices of salmon so that they cover the entire pizza, slightly overlapping the raised rim. Sprinkle the chopped chives over the salmon.
7. Using a pizza cutter or a large sharp knife, cut the pizza into 4 or 6 slices. If you like, spoon a little caviar in the center of each slice. Serve immediately.

Ingredients

• 1 cup fresh lime juice
• 1 cup fresh lemon juice
• Sugar
• 1 oz. Hum Botanical Spirit
• Moet & Chandon Imperial Brut Reserve
• Rose petal

Directions

1. Make a syrup with 1.5 cups sugar and 1 cup hot water. Stir until sugar is completely dissolved.
2. Add 1 cup fresh lime juice and 1 cup fresh lemon juice and refrigerate. Syrup may be substituted with 1 pint agave nectar.
3. Fill a chilled Champagne Flute half way with ice.
4. Stir 1 ounce of fresh squeezed sour mix and 1 oz. of Hum Botanical Spirit with fresh ice.
5. Strain into the Flute to fill 1/2 way and top with Moet & Chandon Imperial Brut Reserve.
6. Garnish with a single rose petal.

Recipe courtesy of oscar.com

Serve chilled Moet champagne and also provide the official Governors Ball specialty champagne cocktail.

• Set the tone with nominated songs such as “Man or Muppet”! Nominated movie scores are also great for background music.

• Choose a few of Wolfgang Puck’s menu items to pass around your party. The pizza with smoked salmon is delicious as well as the festive Oscars Fudge from Sherry Yard!

• Send out a ballot to vote prior to the telecast.  Your guests can compete for the most wins. Order an Academy Awards poster as the grand prize!

• Dress up!  It’s the greatest award show of all time!  We will always celebrate movies.  When anyone takes the time to dress up they are also preparing themselves for your event physically and emotionally.

Ingredients

• 1 pound bittersweet chocolate, chopped fine and melted
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 tbsp. sugar
• 1 oz. water
• 14 oz. sweetened condensed milk
• 2 tbsp. Jack Daniels
• ¹/₄ cup heavy cream

Directions

Over the past 8 years, Mon Atelier has crafted gorgeous dresses for Sequoia Productions’ Founder and President, Cheryl Cecchetto. From the Emmys to the Oscars and events in between, Cheryl has had between 15-20 dresses from the Mon Atelier collection, each one more beautiful than the last. Keep checking back on Celebrate! to see Cheryl’s incredible gown for this year’s Oscars Governors Ball on February 26!

Photo: Toky Photography

We are proud to say that Earthworks will be supplying all our bathroom amenities for the 2012 Oscars Governors Ball. Also, Corinne has kindly put together an amazing bundle of Earthworks products for one of our readers! Simply go to our Facebook page and follow the sweepstakes instructions for your chance to win!