Elton John's Oscar-Viewing Party Raised $7M For AIDS Research

WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA - The 25th annual Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Awards Viewing Party hosted by Sir Elton John and David Furnish raised a record- breaking $7 million for the global effort to end AIDS, party organizers said Tuesday.

The gala took place Sunday at West Hollywood Park in Los Angeles and was sponsored by Bvlgari, Neuro Drinks and Diana Jenkins, a statement said.

The guests arrived at the Academy Awards Viewing Party for cocktails followed by a gala dinner and viewing of the 89th Academy Awards telecast. For a fifth consecutive year, British celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay prepared "an exquisite" five-course meal for guests, it said.

During the evening, John and Furnish introduced Open Road and Survival Pictures' new film -- "The Promise" -- which tells the story of the Armenian Genocide in Turkey at the outset of World War I.

The Promise team at Survival Pictures is committed to donate all proceeds from the film to nonprofit humanitarian organizations.

-- City News Service, photo credit: Ernst Vikne/Flickr/Wiki Commons