This Year’s Oscars Swag Bag Comes With $170,000 Worth of Experiences and Products

The top acting and directing nominees at the 96th Academy Awards are in for a treat.

Gift bags for winners of the major awards shows are big business. Back in 2023, the Oscars offering included items worth $126,000; stars at this year’s event could be in for even more, as the treasure trove donated to successful nominees is valued at over $170,000. That, however, pales in comparison with the gift bag awarded to winners and presenters at this year’s Golden Globes—which included a custom suede tote bag, and an extraordinary menu of exclusive products such as one-of-a-kind jewelry, cruises and numerous travel experiences around the world, wine, and skin care with a total value of over half a million dollars—which was put together by Robb Report.

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The gift pouches for the top 25 nominees—in the Best Directing and Best Actor categories—have nearly 60 items inside, with the most expensive addition being a $50,000 trip to the Chalet Zermatt Peak in the Swiss Alps. Robb Report shared an exclusive look inside the luxe St. Barth villas that will be available to the nominees for their next vacation.

Other items stars such as Bradley Cooper, Coleman Domingo, and Cillian Murphy will receive include the full line of Miage skin-care goodies, a $10,000 micro-needling treatment, and a 45-bottle wine fridge from Thor kitchen, says Business Insider. That’s in addition to a slew of other beauty products and treatments, chocolates, sleep aids, and a special Rubik’s Cube.

But as grand as they sound, these “gifts” come at a price. The swag bags are considered taxable income (per the IRS website), since Distinctive Assets is paid to put the pouches together, instead of them being given to the stars by friends or family. With the IRS’s 37 percent tax rate, that means anyone who gets a bag this year owes the agency at least $62,900—$16,280 more than they would have owed for 2023’s bags.

Stars who live in California will fare even worse. They’ll have to cough up an additional $24,480, thanks to the 14.4 percent state tax. Each offering comes with an IRS Form 1099 to remind celebs to report their items—but they only have to log and pay taxes for the goods they use.

As for the Oscars themselves, The Holdovers’s Paul Giamatti and American Fiction’s Jeffrey Wright join Cooper, Domingo, and Murphy in the running for Best Actor at the ceremony. Oppenheimer’s Christopher Nolan is also one of five nominees that could take home the award for Best Directing, alongside film icon Martin Scorsese for Killers of the Flower Moon.

If you want to see who takes home that golden statuette, ABC (and any streaming services that carry the channel) will be broadcasting the Academy Awards live on Sunday, March 10, at 7 p.m. EST from L.A.’s Dolby Theater.

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