The Best Photos From Inside PEOPLE’s Portrait Studio at Elton John’s Annual Oscars Watch Party (Exclusive)

For more than three decades, the Rocket Man has been hosting the star-studded Elton John AIDS Foundation’s Academy Awards viewing party.

This year, everyone from Sheryl Lee Ralph to Paris Jackson and power couples like Ashlyn Harris and Sophia Bush and Hayley Erbert and Derek Hough were all dressed up to ring in the biggest night in film just a few miles away from where the ceremony was unraveling — and PEOPLE was inside to capture the magic.

Scroll on to see some of the best photos from inside the annual soirée.