KUALA LUMPUR, March 12 — In a heated race, only one of this year’s Oscar nominees in each category will win the coveted golden statuette.
However, acting and directing nominees will be glad to know that they will receive a gift bag with items worth RM564,937, regardless of if they win or lose.
The ‘Everyone Wins’ gift bag has been delivered to nominees for 21 years by Los Angeles marketing company, Distinctive Assets.
This year’s 27 recipients will include all the nominees for Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, and host Jimmy Kimmel.
Tan Sri Michelle Yeoh will be one of the nominees this year eligible to receive the gift bag.
According to CNBC Make It, the most expensive gift in this year’s bag is an RM187,780 three-day trip at The Lifestyle, a luxurious property in Ottawa, Canada.
The house comes with a fully stocked fridge of fine foods, an in-home movie theatre, and a ride in a 2023 McLaren Artura.
Other vouchers include RM45,195 worth of laser skin care treatments from Dr Konstantin Vasyukevich and an RM40,675 three-night trip to Italy at the Faro Punta Imperatore Lighthouse for the nominee and seven friends.
“There’s nothing like a first-time nominee’s enthusiasm about getting this gift bag,” Distinctive Assets founder Lash Fary told MSNBC.
He added that elaborate preparations have to be made in advance with the nominees’ management to ensure the delivery of the gift bag.
Sometimes, Fary’s team go as far as find out which hotel rooms the nominees will stay in because the gift bags will arrive in two suitcases.
“A lot of these folks are travelling, or they’re going to transport it somewhere else. So we’d like to make it as convenient as possible for them.” Fary added.
However, he admits that no recipient of the gift bags has ever used more than two trips due to their busy schedules.
Additionally, the more the recipients use the vouchers the more they will have to pay in taxes as the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) views the gift bags as taxable income.
