This year’s Academy Awards have come and gone. In the aftermath, we’ve scrolled through countless “Best Dressed” lists, chuckled through the sort-of opening monologue by comedic trio Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, and Tina Fey, and watched Bohemian Rhapsody take home the highest number of golden trophies (four in total).
If you’re still reeling from all that Hollywood buzz, you’re not alone. Jumping on the bandwagon, travel booking platform Hotels.com has come up with its own Oscar-inspired list of award-worthy “cinematic escapes” (i.e. hotel destinations in Asia), including various categories and their “nominees.”
Best Documentary Feature, for example, highlights historical sites, such as Alila Fort Bishangarh in India, a 230-year-old warrior fort that used to house royalty. If you’re curious about Cambodia’s past, Raffles Hotel Le Royal in Phnom Penh is one of the buildings that survived the Khmer Rouge Occupation, eventually undergoing restoration and re-opening in 1997. Then there’s the Eastern & Oriental Hotel in Penang, Malaysia, a place of 20th century charm in a colonial-style structure that has lived through two world wars.
For Best Costume Design, the façades of hotels come under scrutiny, with standout names like Singapore’s Six Senses Duxton, a black and gold-tinted shop house row, and Kayon Jungle Resort Ubud in Bali, Indonesia, for its rolling hills of green and rice terrace-inspired layout.
Under Best Production Design, the interiors of Vietnam’s The Reverie Saigon in Ho Chi Minh City are spotlighted for their ornate, grand look, alongside Singapore’s Naumi Hotel, a boutique space with rooms and suites paying homage to icons such as Andy Warhol and Coco Chanel. There’s also Phum Baitang in Siem Reap, Cambodia, an award-winning hotel in its own right, famous for its stilted villas and rustic wooden structures.
As for Best Animated Feature, cartoons are naturally involved. Like Lotte Hotel Jeju in South Korea and its Hello Kitty-themed pink paradise. Or Hotel Universal Port in Osaka, Japan, which is best buds with those yellow Minions. Or the Deely House Family B&B in Taiwan, home to characters like Dora the Explorer and Rapunzel.
Of course, you can’t have a tribute to the Oscars without including Best Picture, and here they are hotels where award-winning films were shot. Flicks like The Quiet American (2002) and Indochine (1992) featured the grounds of Ho Chi Minh City’s Hotel Continental Saigon, while the characters of Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson frequently met in the 52nd floor bar at Park Hyatt Tokyo for Lost in Translation (2003).
More recently, Crazy Rich Asians cast a spotlight on Raffles Singapore when Rachel Chu and her ridiculously rich fiancé Nick Young spent the night in the Presidential Suite. Currently closed for restoration works, the hotel is slated to reopen in mid-2019.
They’re perhaps not quite as futuristic as Black Panther or elaborately designed as The Favourite, but still pretty cool nominations nonetheless.
