Pulling an all-nighter FOR OSCARS

If filmmakers and movie stars lose sleep the night before the Oscar nominations are announced, they are not alone.

Nearly 100 workers spent a sleepless night preparing for Thursday's early-morning announcement in Beverly Hills, Calif. They surrendered their cell phones and locked themselves into the high security of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' headquarters, where they focused solely on the business of breaking worldwide movie news.

A minute-by-minute account of their all-nighter:

8:30 p.m. Overnight workers arrive, greeted by a sign that reads: "No cell phones. No BlackBerrys. All communication with the outside world is prohibited until 5:38 a.m."

8:45 p.m. Telephone and Internet access is shut down throughout the building. Workers are given walkie-talkies.

9:05 p.m. Representatives from PricewaterhouseCoopers, the firm that tabulates the ballots, arrive with the results and distribute the nominees' list. The workers cheer, then fall silent as they devour the news. Muffled "hmm"s and "wow"s follow.

9:18 p.m. The floor empties as the Web designers, graphic artists, researchers, publicists and producers disperse to prepare for the 5:38 a.m. news conference, which is attended by hundreds of reporters and beamed live worldwide.

9:39 p.m. Academy executives, film experts and a reference librarian meet on the top floor to assemble factoids and trivia bits about the nominees.

10 p.m. Virtic Brown, the communications-desk supervisor, conducts a walkie-talkie roll-call from her post on the fifth floor. Every hour, she checks to make sure the radios -- and the workers -- are still working.

11:02 p.m. The experts and executives finish the trivia bits. An assistant makes copies for the press.

11:50 p.m. Graphic designers claim a corner of the fourth floor to format photos of the nominees for the televised announcement. They started collecting images of likely nominees weeks ago to speed the process, but there was a surprise name in the mix. They had to scramble for a photo. They won't say which one.

12:28 a.m. Six women wearing blue plastic gloves start making up press kits. They fill a table with stacks of paper -- the nominees' list, the factoids -- then walk in circles around it collating printouts. It will take more than two hours to assemble 850 press kits. The gloves prevent paper cuts.

1 a.m. Brown does her third walkie-talkie roll-call. "I'm still here," one weary worker replies.

1:13 a.m. Media members begin unloading video cameras, lights and other electronic gear into the academy's second-floor theater, where the nominations are announced.

1:17 a.m. The graphic designers move their operation into the wings of the theater, where they'll fine-tune their images and timing during a technical rehearsal.

2:09 a.m. A worker vacuums the first-floor lobby, which is filled with linen-covered tables and bountiful buffet stations.

2:58 a.m. Bleary-eyed workers straggle into the lobby to eat. A few journalists join them.

4:08 a.m. Copresenter Forest Whitaker arrives. He and Ganis practice reading names off a teleprompter.

4:23 a.m. Ganis and Whitaker step into the theater for a dress rehearsal. They run through the five-minute presentation a few times as a clock behind them ticks down the minutes until the live broadcast.

4:35 a.m. Oscar telecast producers Laurence Mark and Bill Condon take seats inside the theater.

5 a.m. "It's a very exciting morning," Ganis says in his office. "It's a big job to announce Oscar nominations."

5:10 a.m. Journalists from 400 media outlets fill the theater.

5:17 a.m. The Oscar.com workers relax. The site is ready and waiting to go live when the broadcast begins.

5:33 a.m. A voice booms over the buzzing crowd in the theater: "Five minutes to our live broadcast."

5:38 a.m. The same voice says, "10 seconds everyone." Music plays. Ganis and Whitaker take the stage.