Oscars security tighter than ever: 1-mile police buffer amid Iran war

It’s been more than two decades since the Oscars were celebrated as the United States was launching a war in the Middle East.

In 2003, the Academy Awards ceremony at the Dolby Theatre occurred just days after U.S. troops invaded Iraq, elevating security concerns surrounding Hollywood’s biggest night so much that they tightened security like never before.

This time around — with concerns heightened not only because of a war with Iran, but also a recent shooting at a university in Virginia and an attack on a synagogue in Michigan — security is going to be even more ironclad, authorities said. The dialed-up security, law enforcement and Oscars officials emphasize, is precautionary and there are no known credible threats to the event.

Authorities are setting up a one-mile security perimeter around the Dolby Theatre for the celebration. Federal and local agencies working with the Joint Terrorism Task Force are monitoring social media and gathering intelligence to prevent any security risks. And Los Angeles Police Department SWAT, bomb squad and snipers will be in the area, law enforcement sources told The Times.

LAPD Capt. Mike Bland said the department in recent years created a specialized group to handle major events and that it now uses many more personnel for the Oscars.

“Security is heightened more than years past not just because of ongoing events but because of the past few years,” he said.

Security has been tighter at the Oscars every year since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks 24½ years ago. While federal and local law enforcement agencies don’t publicly share all of the safeguards in place, sources have told The Times that even the air around the event is constantly checked for potential hazards, including radiation.

Oscar statues for the 77th Academy Awards at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles on Feb. 27, 2005.

(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

In past years, a biological decontamination unit was placed in the area and military-grade drones flew overhead. There’s also more unseen security being deployed including cameras and overwatch by officers and federal agents than in decades past.

With any large event, law enforcement officials and organizers are cautious about security, but a memo this week warning agencies across California that the Iran war could lead to a surprise drone attack brought increased attention to how Sunday’s highly publicized event will be protected.

In a memo sent to agencies that are part of a federal Joint Terrorism Task Force, the government said, “We recently acquired unverified information that as of early February 2026, Iran allegedly aspired to conduct a surprise attack using unmanned aerial vehicles [UAVs] from an unidentified vessel off the coast of the United States, specifically against unspecified targets in California, in the event of U.S. strikes on Iran.”

However, sources told The Times that the warning was cautionary and there’s no credible intelligence to indicate an impending attack.

Concerns were heightened even more this week after a man convicted of attempting to provide funds to an Islamic State terrorist group opened fire at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., and another man who had lost family members in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon crashed his truck into a synagogue and preschool.

LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said this week that his department, in general, is most concerned about these types of attacks rather than more complex terrorist schemes.

“We have the event and then we have rings of security,” McDonnell said Friday. The chief said the LAPD has a special events team that in recent years specializes in building security plans and executing for the major events L.A. hosts.

“It will go well,” he said. “We are well prepared.”

Ceremony executive producer Raj Kapoor told reporters at a news conference on Wednesday that officials monitor global events every year before the Oscars to prepare and collaborate closely with the LAPD and FBI.

Los Angeles police will have layered security perimeters around the Oscars, a traffic management strategy designed to prevent people from driving in a straight pattern toward the theater and a visible presence throughout Hollywood on Sunday.

“This show has to run like clockwork,” Kapoor said. “But we want everybody that is coming to this show, that is witnessing the show, that is even a fan of the show when they’re standing outside the barricades, we want everybody to feel safe and protected and welcome, so it’s our job as a producing team to make sure that that translates.”