Oscars stage: leafy courtyard
This year’s Oscars stage was designed as a minimalist, leafy courtyard garden — led by Misty Buckley and Alana Billingsley to create a calming, nature‑infused setting for the 98th Academy Awards Wallpaper.
Designers leaned on a “golden hour” lighting concept to push warm, sunset tones across the set, giving the stage a soft, time-of-day glow. (wallpaper.com) Dynamic LED panels handle the shifting sky effects on the backdrop, while bronze, trellis-like gates and overhanging branches provide the set’s architectural framing. (wallpaper.com) The build was large-scale and tightly scheduled: the crew loaded more than 800 lighting fixtures and a custom PA with massive fiber-optic runs during load-in, after roughly eight months of design proposals and three months of contracted fabrication. (dnyuz.com) Misty Buckley and Alana Billingsley — who returned as production designers for this telecast and earned an Emmy for their 2025 Oscars work — led the set’s execution alongside the show’s production leadership. (hollywoodreporter.com) The Academy and producers framed the look as a “sanctuary of celebration,” even as social posts showed mixed reactions from viewers, with some critics likening the look to a restaurant or calling it “ugly.” (vanityfair.com) The stage was built specifically for the live telecast at the Dolby Theatre, with the 98th Academy Awards scheduled to air live on Mar. 15 on ABC and stream on Hulu. (hollywoodreporter.com)
