16 Recipes to Make for Your 2026 Oscars Watch Party

The time is finally almost here: The biggest night in Hollywood—the Academy Awards—marks the finale of the lengthy awards season and a career launch pad for some of its biggest stars.

It’s also a night when pop culture history is made, like the 2017 best picture mix-up, Sally Field’s 1985 “you like me!” speech or the slap heard around the world in 2022. So it makes perfect sense that you’d want to share the evening with friends, food and maybe a drink or two or three—hey, it’s a long night!

With that in mind, we’ve rounded up some of our favorite recipes that could play a starring role in your 2026 Oscars watch party, whether that be easy cocktails that pair well with some of the buzziest nominated films, dishes that the Hollywood A-listers love or red carpet-worthy appetizers that put us in a cinematic mood.

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Smoked Salmon Dip

Celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck has been catering the Governors Ball, aka the official after party of the Academy Awards, every year for the past 30-plus years. While the menu is different each time, one item that appears every year is smoked salmon cut into the shape of an Oscar. This smoked salmon dip is the perfect way to pay tribute to the Oscars tradition.

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Korean Corn Dog

One of the surest bets of these Oscars is that the popular K-Pop Demon Hunters is expected to take home the trophy for best animated feature. Anyone who’s seen the film multiple times thanks to their kids’—or their own!— love for the movie will recognize these corn dogs from the Saja Boys’ performance of their endlessly catchy song “Soda Pop.”

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Cranberry-Jalapeno Martini

Best actress nominee and Song Sung Blue star Kate Hudson is a big fan of spicy martinis, and we think this cocktail would shine as the signature cocktail of any Oscar watch party. The color of the drink even matches the red carpet!

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Mini Burgers with the Works

Who doesn’t love a slider at a watch party? One person we know loves a burger is best supporting actor nominee Jacob Elordi, who is a particular fan of the maximalist Australian burger. To prepare them Australian style and make the Frankenstein star proud, add pineapple, beet slices, bacon and mayonnaise to these monstrously tasty mini burgers.

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Spicy Cantaloupe Bites

In best picture nominee Marty Supreme, best actor nominee Timothée Chalamet plays a charismatic and chaotic table tennis prodigy who even comes up with an idea to sell orange novelty table tennis balls bearing his name. This unexpected appetizer is the perfect way to represent the film among your party spread.

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Blood Orange Margarita

In best picture contender Sinners, twin brothers Smoke and Stack—both played by Michael B. Jordan—face off against a vampiric evil force that is threatening their community. This visually stunning cocktail is a clever nod to the bloody conflict that ensues.

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Hot Dog Sliders

One of the biggest tragedies of the film Weapons happens when Gladys Lilly (played by the best supporting actress-nominated Amy Madigan) interrupts a hot dog-nature documentary lunch date between two characters with her nefarious witchcraft. Your horror movie-loving guests will immediately recognize the scene you’re referencing once they glimpse these hot dog sliders.

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Oysters Rockefeller

In a recent interview on the Table Manners podcast, Jessie Buckley, the star of Hamnet and the odds-on favorite to win best actress, revealed that oysters would be her pick for her last supper. To us, nothing screams a Hollywood-themed night more than this classic oyster preparation that’s surprisingly simple to make at home.

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Champagne Party Punch

The champagne seems to always be flowing in the best picture-nominated F1 starring Brad Pitt as F1 star driver Sonny Hayes, and the Oscars is a great excuse to break out the bubbly as it is. This citrus-forward, crowd-pleasing party punch will have your guests coming back for multiple laps.

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Swedish Cardamom Buns (Kardemummabullar)

Sentimental Value actor and best supporting actor nominee Stellan Skarsgård’s favorite dessert is a Swedish dish called semla, which is a spin on a traditional cardamom bun that’s particularly popular during Lent. To make it Skarsgård-style for your watch party, just cut off the top of the bun, fill it with some marzipan and top the whole thing off with whipped cream.

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Creole Cornbread

This appetizer is an homage to Cornbread, one of the most memorable characters in Sinners. Played by Omar Benson Miller, Cornbread is a sharecropper who serves as the bouncer at Club Juke. To bring more Sinners energy to your party spread, you could never go wrong by frying up some chicken to serve alongside the bread.

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Meatballs

In a pivotal scene during the best picture-nominated sci-fi flick Bugonia, the conspiracy theorist Teddy (played by Jesse Plemons) serves spaghetti and meatballs to his captive Michelle (Emma Stone) and cousin Don (Aidan Delbis). Your guests will immediately clock this reference if they’ve seen the film—just don’t forget a marinara sauce for dipping.

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French 75

In the best picture-nominated One Battle After Another, the action centers on the long-dormant revolutionary group the French 75 and its hapless member Pat Calhoun (played by Leonardo DiCaprio). This classic cocktail is begging for a place on your Oscars party drink menu.

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Lychee Martini

If you’re looking to rep OBAA and its breakout star, Teyana Taylor, specifically, this drink is similar to a cocktail called Rose in Harlem that’s on the menu at celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson’s Red Rooster Harlem in a salute to the actress.

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Earl Grey Panna Cotta

In a memorable scene in Guillermo del Toro’s best picture-nominated Frankenstein, Oscar Isaac (who plays Dr. Victor Frankenstein) is seen dining on a panna cotta, and it’s hard to dream up a more decadent way to end your Oscars watch party.