All you need to know about the stage of the 2023 Oscars ceremony

For this year’s Academy Awards ceremony, some 3500 square feet of LED screens were reportedly installed throughout the set to offer an immersive digital experience in an ambience dressed in hues of brass and bronze. The Oscar arrival carpet, meanwhile, for the first time in more than six decades, was not red but champagne in colour.

With materials reportedly sourced from shops that regularly supply to the television industry, the on-site construction at Los Angeles’ Dolby Theatre began in mid-December.

Who are Buckley and Billingsley?

An Emmy winner for her design at the 2021 Grammys, Misty Buckley is a British designer who was also nominated for a BAFTA Award for Stormzy’s headline performance on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury Festival. Set Designer of the Year at the TPi Awards on three occasions, she has designed sets for large-scale ceremonies such as Coldplay’s Super Bowl 50 Halftime Show, London 2012 Paralympics Closing Ceremony and the Opening and Closing Ceremonies for Birmingham Commonwealth Games.

US-based Alana Billingsley, on the other hand, is a three-time Emmy winner who’s worked on seven Oscars, and the Golden Globe Awards in the past. She is considered one of the foremost art designers in American television.

Where was the ceremony held?

In its 95-year-old history, the Oscar ceremony has been held across ten different venues, beginning with the Blossom Room of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, California, in 1929. Tickets for the private dinner at the inaugural event reportedly cost only $5 and the presentation ceremony hosted by actor Douglas Fairbanks only lasted 15 minutes.

In the subsequent years, the Oscars were held at several venues, including the Ambassador Hotel, The Biltmore Hotel, RKO Pantages Theatre and the Shrine Auditorium. In 2002, the newly-opened, 3400-seat Dolby Theatre became its venue, with a stage that is 120 feet-wide and 75 feet-deep.