As if it wasn’t enough for fans that Little Women was so perfectly cast, the stars of director Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of the timeless 1868 novel proved that they also have perfect chemistry offscreen on Sunday night.
Starring Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Eliza Scanlen and Florence Pugh as the four March sisters (Jo, Meg, Beth and Amy, respectively) as well as Laura Dern as Marmee, Meryl Streep as Aunt March and Timothée Chalamet as Laurie, Little Women has earned rave reviews from critics and viewers alike since its Dec. 25 release. TIME’s film critic Stephanie Zacharek wrote that Gerwig has made a film that is “complex and thoughtful but that is also, at every moment, pure pleasure to watch.”
And at the 92nd Annual Academy Awards on Sunday, the cast gave viewers no reason to doubt that their familial bond isn’t just as genuine offscreen as it seemed in the movie. Before heading inside Los Angeles’ Dolby Theatre to find out whether Ronan would take home the Oscar for Best Actress, Pugh for Best Supporting Actress and the movie itself for Best Picture, Little Women‘s stars stunted on the red carpet, manifesting their sisterhood in real life. Gerwig and Ronan even shared an embrace. (As it turned out, the film came up short of those awards, but won for Best Costume Design thanks to designer Jacqueline Durran.)
Louisa May Alcott would be proud.
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Write to Megan McCluskey at megan.mccluskey@time.com