Spike Lee has said he should have been nominated for best director years ago, as he arrived on the Oscars red carpet.
The filmmaker received his first directing nod for BlacKkKlansman, which is also in the running for best adapted screenplay and best picture.
He was previously nominated for his screenplay for Do The Right Thing and for documentary 4 Little Girls, but his lack of nomination for directing Do The Right Thing at the 1990 ceremony is widely regarded as a snub.
Discussing what his first directing nomination means to him, he told E! news: “You want me to be honest? It should have happened before but that’s (he then dusted off his shoulder)”.
Asked if it was water under the bridge, he said: “Let’s not go too far. Maybe a trickle, maybe a tear drop.”
He added: “I think this film is on the right side of history so I don’t need an Oscar to validate it, that would be nice.
“But for example this coming June 30 will be the 30th anniversary of Do The Right Thing, the fact of not winning an Oscar has not hurt that film so I think it will be the same thing with this film.”
Glenn Close, who is the favourite to win the best actress prize for The Wife, arrived in a gold Carolina Herrera gown with a cape, and said the outfit weighed 42 lbs.
She told E! “This is a whole other exercise tonight. The thing I’m bringing with me tonight is the overwhelming amount of love I have gotten from people, not just from my fellow actors but from all around the world. I am going in there with a lot of love.”
Richard E Grant, who is nominated for best supporting actor for Can You Ever Forgive Me? arrived in a burgundy velvet tuxedo jacket, accompanied by his daughter Olivia.
He told E!’s Ryan Seacrest, that he was “thrilled” at being nominated for the first time, adding it was “beyond anything I could have imagined”.
He said “it feels out of body, truly”.
Regina King, who is nominated for best supporting actress for her role in the adaptation of the James Baldwin book If Beale Street Could Talk, arrived on the red carpet dressed in a white strapless Oscar de la Renta gown.
Speaking to E! news about the movie, she said: “I just felt like this film is a film about the fabric of America, one of the pieces, the threads of America and Oscar de la Renta is an American designer and I thought it was appropriate.”
Discussing her nomination, King added: “I can’t say I didn’t ever expect to be at the Oscars, but to be at the Oscars representing James Baldwin is mind-blowing.”
She said she learned about the role while she was directing an episode of This Is Us, adding: “I had just told my agent I don’t want to play a mother for a while but then I read ‘Barry Jenkins adaptation of James Baldwin’ and I had to run out of the office to say yes.”
Roma and The Favourite are tied for the most nominations at the 91st Oscars, with 10 each.