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Scottish chocolates at the Oscars - 13th March 2024

Hollywood stars came together at the Oscars recently. But they knew little about the surprises in their gift bags.

The Oscar nominees – the best directors, best actors and so on – each found a special box of handmade chocolates in their bags. The goodies were created by Fiona McArthur. She owns and runs a vegan chocolate shop in Western Scotland.

When the Oscars organisers contacted her, McArthur was shocked. As a tiny business, she first thought it wasn't real.

Fiona McArthur: "The Oscars came about when I was approached by the company that puts together the gift bags and they asked if I'd like to be involved. I couldn't believe it, I actually thought it was fake when they first contacted me because I thought 'I'm such a small brand, I'm so new', like, but yeah, it's, it's real."

McArthur's company – FETCHA – makes chocolates for everyone. Her chocolates are vegan, without soya, palm oil, gluten or alcohol. The chocolates are wrapped in packaging which is free from plastic.

The chocolate maker's a film lover. She's had a small part in many films herself. She wanted to put film at the centre of these chocolates. The box contains chocolates which have film themes. For example, there's a pink one for Barbie, and a bomb-like one for Oppenheimer.

Fiona McArthur: "So I've got a, a chocolate themed for 'Barbie', a chocolate themed for 'Oppenheimer', and 'Killers of the Flower Moon', 'Poor Things', 'Holdovers' and 'Maestro'. And they're all tailored, like 'Barbie' is pink and 'Oppenheimer' is like a bomb, so it has kind of yellows and oranges and it has popping candy in it. So, they're kind of all themed to the movies themselves."

This year, Fiona McArthur's the Academy's next star chocolate maker, after Willy Wonka!