The Best Bars for Awards Season

A film-industry haunt that operates year-round with cinematic intent and doubles down during awards season with dedicated projection screens and a prix-fixe ceremony menu. The leather banquettes face a 120-inch screen, service is attentive without hovering, and the cocktail list runs toward gin-forward classics. Book ahead for the Oscars; walk-ins are possible for the Globes on a weeknight.

Order: The Dolby Negroni, house gin with cocoa-washed Campari

A whisky-focused bar with a genuine love of film that shows up in the framed stills and the ceremony-night specials. The screen is behind the bar, which means every seat in the house has a sightline. The staff know their whisky and their films, and on ceremony nights they run a predictive ballot card you fill in at the door. The crowd skews industry adjacent without being insufferable.

Order: Booker's Rye on a single large cube, no fuss

This basement bar on Orchard Street was designed around the idea that a bar should feel like the best seat at a private screening, and it achieves that with a 4K projector and a custom sound system that keeps dialogue crisp even with a full room. The cocktail list is tight at 12 drinks, all well executed. Arrival 30 minutes before any ceremony start time guarantees a good spot.

Order: The Closing Credits, a mezcal sour with smoked salt rim

Named with deliberate provocation, Palme d'Or Social brings a European sensibility to the American awards calendar. They screen every major ceremony with French and Italian wines by the glass alongside a rotating list of nine cocktails. The room seats 60 and the crowd tends to dress. Nominations night is as busy as the actual ceremony here, which tells you something about the clientele.

Order: Champagne by the coupe, Pierre Peters if they have it

A neighbourhood bar that takes awards season seriously without the downtown pretension. The screen is large, the sound is set at a level where you can still hear the person next to you, and the menu covers classics competently. This is the best option for people who want the ceremony experience without booking two weeks ahead. They run a $5 well drinks deal from red carpet through Best Director.

Order: Old Fashioned, their version is reliable and properly cold

The most theatrical option in the city. Studio 54 Social Club opens with a red carpet activation for major ceremonies, complete with a step-and-repeat wall and a photographer on the door. Inside, 3 screens run the telecast and the cocktail list features celebrity-named riffs that are better than they sound. The crowd plays along with the concept, which is either charming or exhausting depending on your mood.

Order: The Best Supporting Actor, a rum and coconut cream riff that actually works

A Silver Lake cocktail bar that has made awards season its signature event of the year. The head bartender programs a special menu for each ceremony keyed to the nominated films, and they run a prediction pool with the prize being a private tasting for six. The room is long and narrow with screens at both ends, so no seat is bad. Reservations open two weeks before each major ceremony and go fast.

Order: Whatever the ceremony-night special is. It is always worth it.

Located 3 blocks from the Dolby Theatre, this bar fills up with people who are genuinely in the industry on Oscar night and everyone adjacent to it on the Globes. The sound system is exceptional, the drink prices reflect the postcode, and the crowd-watching is half the reason to come. The cocktail list runs 20 drinks with a Hollywood golden-age theme executed with enough skill to avoid feeling like a tourist trap.

Order: The Golden Ratio, a clarified martini with house-washed gin and lemon oil

The best option in the city for viewers who care about the international and documentary categories as much as the marquee prizes. Frame by Frame is a film-nerd bar that treats every category with equal seriousness and runs commentary cards at each table with background notes on nominees. The natural wine list is excellent. They screen the BAFTAs and the Cesars, which no other bar on this list bothers with.

Order: Skin-contact orange wine by the glass, ask the staff for the current pour

The most unabashedly glamorous option on this list. The bar runs a full-service viewing menu from 5pm on ceremony nights with champagne towers available on order. The crowd arrives dressed. The playlist between segments is deliberately good. This is the place to come when the awards themselves are secondary to the experience of watching them in a room full of people who have committed to the occasion.

Order: Veuve Clicquot by the bottle, split four ways, it works out reasonably