The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has revealed its top picks from the films of 2016, with the voting to take place over the next month and the winners to be announced at the Oscars ceremony, hosted by late-night talk show star Jimmy Kimmel, on 26 February.
Sebastian and Mia lead the pack
“La La Land” received a grand total of 14 nominations, which is the most Oscar nominations received by any Film in history, tied with all-time classics “Titanic” and “All About Eve,” giving some indication of the delightful musical romp’s chances of standing the test of time.
Nine films have been nominated for Best Picture (since the limit was upped to ten following the upset over “The Dark Knight” being snubbed): unexpected critical hit sci-fi “Arrival,” pacifist-in-the-Pacific WWII drama “Hacksaw Ridge,” neo-Western “Hell or High Water,” “La La Land” (obviously), and “Manchester by the Sea,” as well as the Academy’s conscientious effort to diversify after last year’s #OscarsSoWhite fiasco with black-themed “Fences,” “Hidden Figures,” and “Moonlight,” plus Middle Eastern-themed “Lion” thrown in for good measure.
The Best Director nominees who could be going home with an Oscar are Damien Chazelle, Denis Villeneuve, Mel Gibson, Kenneth Lonergan, and Barry Jenkins, so a good mix of newcomers and familiar faces.
The Best Actor award will be going to either Casey Affleck, Andrew Garfield, Ryan Gosling, Viggo Mortensen, or Denzel Washington, while Best Actress could go to Isabelle Huppert, Ruth Negga, Natalie Portman, Emma Stone, or Meryl Streep (her twentieth nomination!).
Racially diverse supporting acting categories
While the lead acting Oscar categories each had one token non-white nominee, the supporting acting categories are far more diverse.
For Best Supporting Actor, while Jeff Bridges, Lucas Hedges, and Michael Shannon are white, Mahershala Ali and Dev Patel are not. And as for Best Supporting Actress, Nicole Kidman and Michelle Williams are the only white nominees, with black nominees actually making up the majority: Viola Davis, Naomie Harris, and Octavia Spencer.
As for the writing nominations, the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay could go to Taylor Sheridan for “Hell or High Water,” Damien Chazelle for “La La Land,” Yorgos Lanthimos and Efthimis Fillippou for their weird and wonderful “The Lobster,” Kenneth Lonergan for “Manchester by the Sea,” or Mike Mills for “20th Century Women,” while Best Adapted Screenplay will either go to Eric Heisserer for “Arrival,” August Wilson for “Fences” (adapted from his own play; he actually died tragically 12 years ago), Allison Schroeder and Theodore Melfi for “Hidden Figures,” Luke Davies for “Lion,” or Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney for “Moonlight.”
All the others
The Oscar nominees for Best Animated Feature Film are “Kubo and the Two Strings,” “Moana,” “My Life as a Zucchini,” “The Red Turtle,” and “Zootopia.” The Best Original Score nominations are for “Jackie,” “La La Land,” “Lion,” “Moonlight,” and “Passengers” (the winner there seems pretty obvious).
Nominated for Best Original Song are “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” by Justin Timberlake from “Trolls,” “How Far I’ll Go” by Lin-Manuel Miranda from “Moana,” “The Empty Chair” from “Jim: The James Foley Story,” and Justin Hurwitz’s “Audition (The Fools Who Dream)” and “City of Stars” from “La La Land.”
