Inside Those 2021 Oscar Swag Bags Worth $205,000
The 93rd Academy Awards aired on April 25, 2021. The stars who took home the hardware beamed after receiving their golden statues but their fellow nominees didn’t go home empty-handed thanks to the swag bags.
Here’s what was in those $205,000 goody bags this year.
Who gets a swag bag?
In 1989, the idea of giving out thank-you bags was born when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences started handing out such bags to the presenters and performers at the awards show. Several years later, the Los Angeles-based firm Distinctive Assets started putting together coveted Oscar gift bags for the nominees and stated that the Academy has no association with the freebies given out.
ABC News noted that some stars enjoy getting the gift packages almost as much as an Oscar. In 2003 the bags were loaded with goodies worth $40,000 and Queen Latifah, who was nominated for her best-supporting actress role in Chicago, said: “I’m looking forward to that basket. I can’t wait to see what’s in it. I don’t care how much money you have free stuff is always a good thing.”
Fast forward to 2021 and the “Everybody Wins” bags given out to the 25 nominees for best actor, actress, and director, are worth $205,000.
What’s in the bag?
So what did the nominees receive in this year’s bag?
The swag bags included everything from sweet treats like chocolate-covered biscuits to workout sessions with celebrity trainer Alexis Seletzky to a liposuction procedure with cosmetic surgeon Dr. Thomas Su to an NFT tribute to the late actor Chadwick Boseman.
In a statement Distinctive Assets’ founder Lash Fary explained: “We did want the bags to feel like they had a bigger purpose than just, ‘Here’s a bag full of free stuff. So all of the bags that we’ve been doing have been from female-owned businesses, black-owned businesses, disabled entrepreneurs, and companies who give back — even ones that you wouldn’t necessarily think give back.”
There are also a couple getaways. One is to the Southern California spa Golden Door. There’s also a “more secluded, Covid-safe getaway” to the west coast of Sweden at a nine-room hotel. “It doesn’t get much more socially distant than that,” said Fary.
This year’s bags were a bit ‘lighter’
According to Forbes, this year’s Distinctive Assets bags value is actually $20,000 less than the ones offered in 2020 as it included fewer vacations to resorts.
Sir Anthony Hopkins, Gary Oldman, Viola Davis, Carey Mulligan, Sacha Baron Cohen, Glenn Close, Amanda Seyfried, Daniel Kaluuya, and Leslie Odom Jr., were among the celebrities who received the Distinctive Assets bags.
But they weren’t the only gift bags given out this year.
The DPA Pre-Oscars Lounge event, the GBK Brand Bar, and ECOLUXE Lounge handed out bags that included items from lifestyle brands, luxury handbags, health and wellness products, and jewelry as well as those luxury vacations.
