The stories behind a photographer’s favorite 2026 awards photos

LOS ANGELES (AP) — As a staff photojournalist for The Associated Press based in Los Angeles, Chris Pizzello covers hundreds of entertainment events a year — perched in the rafters, crouched on the red carpet or directing stars to make the perfect portrait. It all culminates in awards season, where he captures the defining moments in the lives of the celebrities he’s shot day in and day out, from the triumphs of Beyoncé and Bad Bunny at the Grammys to the envelope snafu and The Slap at the Oscars.

Ahead of Sunday’s Oscars, he broke down his favorite photos from the 2026 awards season thus far.

Critics Choice Awards: Amy Madigan surprises — and is surprised

One of the cool aspects of shooting the Critics Choice Awards in January is that the few photographers allowed inside are placed right in the middle of the room, surrounded by tables of celebrities. Usually, at awards shows, we’re placed far behind the action, requiring us to scope out the celebrities with massive, bazooka-like 600 mm lenses on monopods.

I usually try to predict who is going to win right before the announcement, so that I can capture their instant reaction. It’s one of my favorite kinds of entertainment photos. Everyone likes to win and they’re always at least a little surprised or gratified, no matter how many times they’ve won before. For the supporting actress category, I actually thought that Teyana Taylor was the likely winner, since “One Battle After Another” had been winning a lot of critics’ awards. So I had my lens trained on her back near the stage. But I knew Amy Madigan was also quite close to my position over to my left. When they announced Madigan’s name for “Weapons,” I swung my lens over quickly and managed to capture her own surprise. I love the reactions of the folks at the table around her, especially her young co-star Cary Christopher in the shades.

Golden Globes: Teyana Taylor, triumphant

Every awards season, there is one nominee who is having more fun than everyone else — and this year, that person is Taylor. Awards season eventually becomes a slog to the vast majority of the nominees, and you can sense the flagging energy as February churns into March. The shoulders slump imperceptibly, the smile becomes a little forced, and the wave to the crowd a little less ebullient than it was at the Palm Springs Film Festival at the start of January (the unofficial kickoff of every awards season).

But none of this applies to Taylor. She’s easily been the red carpet star of the 2026 awards season. She’s the most fashionable, the most energetic and just the plain happiest to be here. The entertainment photographers all wake up when she arrives for the red carpet, and she definitely knows what she’s doing out there.

I like this frame from the photo room of the Golden Globes because you can sense Taylor’s exuberance without even seeing her face. She had just won the supporting actress in a motion picture award for her performance in “One Battle After Another” and was posing up a storm. She gave the photographers about 10 different looks, all equally lively and fun, before finally turning around and striking this triumphant pose.

Oscar nominees luncheon: Connecting with Ethan Hawke

Some of the best vibes of awards season are found at the annual Oscar nominees luncheon, customarily held at the storied Beverly Hilton. Nominees will stroll around makeshift studios set up by the world’s media outlets and do interviews. A few of the outlets (like the AP) are allowed to shoot brief portraits.

It’s all a bit of a crapshoot, since every outlet is fighting to get the same nominees and there are only so many interviews they can do. You just have to be ready for whoever happens to stop by. This year, best actor nominee Ethan Hawke was one of the very first nominees to visit the AP studio. The “Blue Moon” star was so early that my lighting was not even fine-tuned yet. (It usually takes a few sessions before you really have the lighting ratio locked in.)

Since these are very brief shoots, all you can do is try to get the subject on your side immediately. What popped into my head was how I felt he was robbed a few years ago when he was not even nominated for his incredible performance in Paul Schrader’s “First Reformed.” He chuckled and said he agreed. Hawke has an interesting way of chatting and posing at the same time, a quality that has been remarked upon by fellow photographers. It’s more efficient because when you put your camera down to mingle, you’re robbing yourself of precious time to get portraits. Or potentially taking time away from the interviewer. In this frame, Hawke laughed at something in mid-conversation, which gave the portrait a relaxed, spontaneous feel — all you can ask for.

Grammys: Justin Bieber strips it down

The Grammys are always a busy, chaotic, three-hour plus show with elaborate sets, constant lighting and costume changes, pyrotechnic displays and sometimes a cast of hundreds running around the stage for just a single production number. So it was a radical move indeed when Justin Bieber came out onstage to perform, wearing nothing but a guitar and his boxers.

His performance was literally so stripped-down that there wasn’t much to shoot other than tight shots of Bieber moodily leaning into his microphone. Then near the end of the song, as I was switching lenses, I looked up and noticed the wider context of a lone, small figure alone on the stage, dimly lit by a spotlight overhead. Shooting the boxer-clad Bieber in front of a sea of black hopefully gets across the guts it took for him to lay it on the line in front of not only a packed arena but also a live, worldwide viewing audience.

Actor Awards: Michael B. Jordan, mind-blown

It had all been getting too predictable. While there has been some variability in the supporting actor wins through awards season, the leads seemed to have been locked in since early January: Jessie Buckley and Timothée Chalamet. While Buckley prevailed yet again at the Actor Awards, there was a big surprise in store when Viola Davis took the stage to present male actor in a leading role.

My lens was trained on Chalamet. I thought the only possible upset could be Leonardo DiCaprio for “One Battle After Another,” since he was the early favorite in the category before everyone saw Chalamet’s electrifying turn in “Marty Supreme.” But Leo was not even in the building, so I kept my focus on Chalamet.

But Davis suddenly called out Michael B. Jordan’s name for “Sinners,” and the ballroom erupted. No one saw it coming, least of all Jordan. He is a pretty cool customer, so it was fun to shoot his genuinely gobsmacked reaction up at the podium. The Actor Awards this year was like seeing a fairly conventional Hollywood film with an out-of-nowhere twist ending.