The Oscars 2020: Rolex Hosts A Cool Escape For Academy Awards Presenters
The Rolex Green Room, now in its fifth year, is a private oasis in the Oscars storm.
By Hyla Bauer
Contributor
At this year's 92nd Academy Awards, Rolex will once again be hosting the exclusive Green Room. A special “waiting area,” the Green Room is reserved for Oscar presenters and special guests only. Before taking to the Oscars stage to present, some of the world's most recognizable actors and industry execs will gather in the serenity of Rolex Green Room. The Academy Award nominees, on the other hand, will wait in the theater’s audience for that nail-biting moment when the envelope is opened.
Presenters Find Sanctuary in the Green Room
Just like the nominees, presenters can get the jitters too, and the Rolex Green Room provides a quiet sanctuary from the bustling flurry of backstage activity. Rolex's exploration and environmental protection theme inspires the decor of “the ethereal beauty of a polar landscape,” the brand says. It’s a perfect environment to “cool your heels” before stepping on the stage. The icy decor also serves as a visual reminder of the world's precious polar regions and the environmental crises caused by climate change.
Rolex’s Perpetual Planet Initiative
Rolex has been linked with extreme exploration since its founding, and this year, they're highlighting the Explorer II timepiece. Rolex has continually innovated its designs to be able to withstand the world's harshest environments, from the pressure of the depths of the sea to the extreme cold at the top of Mount Everest.
"Pioneers [of exploration] have considered Rolex watches as veritable tools in their struggle to push back physical and mental boundaries,” according to the brand. Time and time again, Rolex watches have proved strong and reliable “in the planet’s most challenging environments.”
Staying Calm Before Speaking to 30 Million People
Let’s get back to the challenge at hand for the presenters waiting in the Green Room before their appearances. While it’s not a trek to the top of Mount Everest, it’s still a physical and mental challenge to go onstage. After all, the presenters will be speaking to a live audience of 3,400 people in the Dolby theater alone, with a whopping worldwide television audience of about 30 million. For those feeling like they’re under fire, Rolex’s sanctuary will transport them to “witness an icy scene, as if they were in the middle of the North Pole,” in the comfort of a "cozy, wood-paneled observatory decorated with warm-toned furnishings."
For those whose nerves are soothed by pacing and might feel cooped-up in the space, “slanted mirrors help deepen the sense of distance,” in the polar images. There’s always the bar, just in case the presenters want a well-deserved drink before or after their appearance.
Rolex and the Performing Arts
Rolex’s commitment to supporting the performing arts is evident at the Oscars, where the brand has hosted the Green Room since 2016. It doesn’t end there. Rolex is also a founding supporter of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, that “aims to preserve film history, a key interest of Rolex, whose values include the importance of encouraging the transmission of knowledge from generation to generation.” There’s a great parallel here to watchmaking, an industry whose strength has grown based on the passing of skills and knowledge from watchmaker to apprentice for generations.
(Images provided by Rolex)
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