Oscars 2024: What’s in the $170,000 ‘Everybody Wins’ goodie bag?

Oscars 2024: The Academy Awards bring together some of the biggest names in Hollywood on the stage every year. This year alone some of the biggest names to be nominated included Cillian Murphy, Christopher Nolan, Robert Downey Junior, Emily Blunt, Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Robert De Niro, Carrey Mulligan, Ryan Gosling! While it is certain that not all would go home with the Golden Statuette, they don’t really have to go empty handed. The Academy Awards, as a tradition, sends the nominees in the acting and directing categories and hosts with an exorbitant goodie bag.

This year, the nominees have been given a goodie bag, carefully curated by Lash Fary, founder of Los Angeles-based marketing company Distinctive Assets that has been giving these goodie bags for 22 years.

You can call it a mix of treats, but ‘treats’ is a rather pedestrian term for the bag containing nearly 60 items. The swag bag is worth over $170,000, with the most expensive being a $50,000 trip to a luxury chalet in the Swiss Alps.

Fary told news agency Reuters that this treat to the select nominees is what they call ‘Everybody Wins’. He clarified that this goodie bag is given independently of the Academy, and he gets to decide what goes in that bag.

This year 25 people will get the trip to the luxury chalet, apart from beauty products, movie-inspired chocolates, gourmet popcorn, sleep aid products, as well as a Rubik's Cube.

Companies pay for a spot in the bag, but it really is the exposure to A-lister that’s got them going.

“They're so famous and their names have such value and such cachet and that's exactly what they can bring to these products,” Fary said.

Last year’s bag contained cosmetic procedures like arm liposuction, hair restoration, facelift worth $41,000, immunity boosters, massage oils, silk pillowcases, snack bar, Japanese milk cake, a three-night stay for eight people in a restored Italian lighthouse, valued at $9,000, and a $40,000 trip to an estate called The Lifestyle in Canada. They also received $25,000 worth of project management fees for home renovations.

Meanwhile, ‘Oppenheimer’ bagged the much-coveted Oscar for best picture, with Cillian Murphy winning the best actor, Christopher Nolan winning best director and Robert Downey Junior winning the best supporting actor for the same film. Emma Stone won her second Oscar for best actress for ‘Poor Things’ and Da’Vine Joy Randolph bagged the best supporting actress.

(With Reuters inputs)