If you ever had any doubt that the entertainment industry loves movies about how great the entertainment industry is, this year’s Oscar nominations just proved it. La La Land, a nostalgic musical about up-and-coming artists in Hollywood, has just tied Titanic and All About Eve for the most Oscar nominations ever received by a single film.
That’s 14 nominations total, for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Ryan Gosling), Best Actress (Emma Stone), Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Production Design, Best Costume Design, Best Original Score, Best Sound, Best Sound Editing and Best Original Song (twice, for “Audition” and “City of Stars”).
Although films that earn that many nominations have the obvious support of damn near every branch of the Academy, and are likely to sweep the awards ceremony, it is extremely unlikely that La La Land will win all fourteen Oscars. Especially since that would require La La Land to tie itself in the Best Original Song category.
But Damien Chazelle’s celebrated musical is the frontrunner in many categories and could very well become the fourth film in history to win the “Big Five” – Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress and Screenplay – after It Happened One Night, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and The Silence of the Lambs. The only major hurdle en route to that milestone is Casey Affleck, whose lead performance in Manchester By The Sea has also been universally celebrated, but whose awards season has been sullied by reminders of allegations of sexual harassment from the set of the mockumentary I’m Still Here.
Paramount Pictures
Also: It Looks Like ‘La La Land’ is the Next ‘The Artist’
Another important observation about this year’s Academy Awards is that the acting categories are significantly more diverse than usual. After last year’s “Oscars So White” controversy, which emerged from the unsettling observation that every single acting nominee for two years in a row was white (and the only nomination for a film like Straight Outta Compton, for example, was for the film’s white writers), the Academy made a concerted effort to invite new members that would shake up the organization’s notoriously older, caucasian demographic.
This marks the first year in Oscars history in which three black actors have been nominated in a single category. Viola Davis (Fences), Naomie Harris (Moonlight) and Octavia Spencer (Hidden Figures) are all nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category, alongside Nicole Kidman (Lion) and Michelle Williams (Manchester By The Sea). Viola Davis is also heavily favored to win. Three actors of color were previously nominated in the Supporting Actress category back in 2007, when Rinko Kikuchi and Adriana Barraza were both nominated for Babel, and Jennifer Hudson won for Dreamgirls.
A24
Also: ‘Zoolander 2’ and ‘Batman v Superman’ Tie For The Most Razzie Nominations
Mahershala Ali (Moonlight) was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor, Ruth Negga (Loving) was nominated for Best Actress, and Denzel Washington earned his seventh Academy Award nomination for Fences, a film he also directed. Washington has already won two Academy Awards, for Best Supporting Actor (Glory) and Best Actor (Training Day). Dev Patel, a nominee for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Lion, is a British actor of Gujarati Indian descent.
As always, one of the bigger stories to emerge from the Oscar nominations are the individuals and films that weren’t nominated. Among the biggest snubs were the popular musical Sing Street, which was expected to at least be nominated for one of its catchy original songs but was left off the final ballot entirely, as well as Pixar’s Finding Dory, one of the most financially successful films of the year. Pixar is a perennial favorite in the category, and has only been left off of the ballot a handful of times since Best Animated Feature was added to the list of Oscar categories back in 2001.
Paramount
Also: ‘Arrival’ Screenwriter and Oscar Nominee Eric Heisserer on The B-Movies Podcast
Other surprise omissions include Martin Scorsese’s Silence, which earned only a single Academy Award nomination for Best Cinematography, as well as Amy Adams, who was considered one of the frontrunners for Best Actress for Arrival (and possibly for Nocturnal Animals) but she didn’t make the Academy’s final five nominees. The sci-fi film Arrival did make an impressive showing, earning eight Oscar nominations including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.
But surprises can only be considered a good thing at the Academy Awards, an event that pundits feverishly try to predict throughout the year, and whose winners often seem like foregone conclusions weeks before the event. That event will take place on Sunday, February 26, and we’ll have ongoing coverage of the nominees and stories from now until then (and if it’s anything like years previous, also afterwards).
For now, take a gander at the complete list of Academy Awards nominations, and if you haven’t seen any of these films, go out and watch them as soon as you can.
BEST PICTURE
ARRIVAL
Shawn Levy, Dan Levine, Aaron Ryder and David Linde, Producers
FENCES
Scott Rudin, Denzel Washington and Todd Black, Producers
HACKSAW RIDGE
Bill Mechanic and David Permut, Producers
HELL OR HIGH WATER
Carla Hacken and Julie Yorn, Producers
HIDDEN FIGURES
Donna Gigliotti, Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping, Pharrell Williams and Theodore Melfi, Producers
LA LA LAND
Fred Berger, Jordan Horowitz and Marc Platt, Producers
LION
Emile Sherman, Iain Canning and Angie Fielder, Producers
MANCHESTER BY THE SEA
Matt Damon, Kimberly Steward, Chris Moore, Lauren Beck and Kevin J. Walsh, Producers
MOONLIGHT
Adele Romanski, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner, Producers
ACHIEVEMENT IN DIRECTING
ARRIVAL
Denis Villeneuve
HACKSAW RIDGE
Mel Gibson
LA LA LAND
Damien Chazelle
MANCHESTER BY THE SEA
Kenneth Lonergan
MOONLIGHT
Barry Jenkins
PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
CASEY AFFLECK
Manchester by the Sea
ANDREW GARFIELD
Hacksaw Ridge
RYAN GOSLING
La La Land
VIGGO MORTENSEN
Captain Fantastic
DENZEL WASHINGTON
Fences
PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
ISABELLE HUPPERT
Elle
RUTH NEGGA
Loving
NATALIE PORTMAN
Jackie
EMMA STONE
La La Land
MERYL STREEP
Florence Foster Jenkins
PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
MAHERSHALA ALI
Moonlight
JEFF BRIDGES
Hell or High Water
LUCAS HEDGES
Manchester by the Sea
DEV PATEL
Lion
MICHAEL SHANNON
Nocturnal Animals
PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
VIOLA DAVIS
Fences
NAOMIE HARRIS
Moonlight
NICOLE KIDMAN
Lion
OCTAVIA SPENCER
Hidden Figures
MICHELLE WILLIAMS
Manchester by the Sea
WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)
ARRIVAL
Screenplay by Eric Heisserer
FENCES
Screenplay by August Wilson
HIDDEN FIGURES
Screenplay by Allison Schroeder and Theodore Melfi
LION
Screenplay by Luke Davies
MOONLIGHT
Screenplay by Barry Jenkins; Story by Tarell Alvin McCraney
WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)
HELL OR HIGH WATER
Written by Taylor Sheridan
LA LA LAND
Written by Damien Chazelle
THE LOBSTER
Written by Yorgos Lanthimos, Efthimis Filippou
MANCHESTER BY THE SEA
Written by Kenneth Lonergan
20TH CENTURY WOMEN
Written by Mike Mills
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
LAND OF MINE
Denmark
A MAN CALLED OVE
Sweden
THE SALESMAN
Iran
TANNA
Australia
TONI ERDMANN
Germany
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS
Travis Knight and Arianne Sutner
MOANA
John Musker, Ron Clements and Osnat Shurer
MY LIFE AS A ZUCCHINI
Claude Barras and Max Karli
THE RED TURTLE
Michael Dudok de Wit and Toshio Suzuki
ZOOTOPIA
Byron Howard, Rich Moore and Clark Spencer
ACHIEVEMENT IN PRODUCTION DESIGN
ARRIVAL
Production Design: Patrice Vermette; Set Decoration: Paul Hotte
FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM
Production Design: Stuart Craig; Set Decoration: Anna Pinnock
HAIL, CAESAR!
Production Design: Jess Gonchor; Set Decoration: Nancy Haigh
LA LA LAND
Production Design: David Wasco; Set Decoration: Sandy Reynolds-Wasco
PASSENGERS
Production Design: Guy Hendrix Dyas; Set Decoration: Gene Serdena
ACHIEVEMENT IN CINEMATOGRAPHY
ARRIVAL
Bradford Young
LA LA LAND
Linus Sandgren
LION
Greig Fraser
MOONLIGHT
James Laxton
SILENCE
Rodrigo Prieto
ACHIEVEMENT IN COSTUME DESIGN
ALLIED
Joanna Johnston
FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM
Colleen Atwood
FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS
Consolata Boyle
JACKIE
Madeline Fontaine
LA LA LAND
Mary Zophres
ACHIEVEMENT IN FILM EDITING
ARRIVAL
Joe Walker
HACKSAW RIDGE
John Gilbert
HELL OR HIGH WATER
Jake Roberts
LA LA LAND
Tom Cross
MOONLIGHT
Nat Sanders and Joi McMillon
BEST DOCUMENTARY (FEATURE)
FIRE AT SEA
Gianfranco Rosi and Donatella Palermo
I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO
Raoul Peck, Rémi Grellety and Hébert Peck
LIFE, ANIMATED
Roger Ross Williams and Julie Goldman
O.J.: MADE IN AMERICA
Ezra Edelman and Caroline Waterlow
13TH
Ava DuVernay, Spencer Averick and Howard Barish
ACHIEVEMENT IN MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING
A MAN CALLED OVE
Eva von Bahr and Love Larson
STAR TREK BEYOND
Joel Harlow and Richard Alonzo
SUICIDE SQUAD
Alessandro Bertolazzi, Giorgio Gregorini and Christopher Nelson
ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)
JACKIE
Mica Levi
LA LA LAND
Justin Hurwitz
LION
Dustin O’Halloran and Hauschka
MOONLIGHT
Nicholas Britell
PASSENGERS
Thomas Newman
ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG)
AUDITION (THE FOOLS WHO DREAM)
from La La Land; Music by Justin Hurwitz; Lyric by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul
CAN’T STOP THE FEELING
from Trolls; Music and Lyric by Justin Timberlake, Max Martin and Karl Johan Schuster
CITY OF STARS
from La La Land; Music by Justin Hurwitz; Lyric by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul
THE EMPTY CHAIR
from Jim: The James Foley Story; Music and Lyric by J. Ralph and Sting
HOW FAR I’LL GO
from Moana; Music and Lyric by Lin-Manuel Miranda
ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND MIXING
ARRIVAL
Bernard Gariépy Strobl and Claude La Haye
HACKSAW RIDGE
Kevin O’Connell, Andy Wright, Robert Mackenzie and Peter Grace
LA LA LAND
Andy Nelson, Ai-Ling Lee and Steve A. Morrow
ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY
David Parker, Christopher Scarabosio and Stuart Wilson
13 HOURS: THE SECRET SOLDIERS OF BENGHAZI
Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers, Jeffrey J. Haboush and Mac Ruth
ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND EDITING
ARRIVAL
Sylvain Bellemare
DEEPWATER HORIZON
Wylie Stateman and Renée Tondelli
HACKSAW RIDGE
Robert Mackenzie and Andy Wright
LA LA LAND
Ai-Ling Lee and Mildred Iatrou Morgan
SULLY
Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman
ACHIEVEMENT IN VISUAL EFFECTS
DEEPWATER HORIZON
Craig Hammack, Jason Snell, Jason Billington and Burt Dalton
DOCTOR STRANGE
Stephane Ceretti, Richard Bluff, Vincent Cirelli and Paul Corbould
THE JUNGLE BOOK
Robert Legato, Adam Valdez, Andrew R. Jones and Dan Lemmon
KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS
Steve Emerson, Oliver Jones, Brian McLean and Brad Schiff
ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY
John Knoll, Mohen Leo, Hal Hickel and Neil Corbould
BEST DOCUMENTARY (SHORT SUBJECT)
EXTREMIS
Dan Krauss
4.1 MILES
Daphne Matziaraki
JOE’S VIOLIN
Kahane Cooperman and Raphaela Neihausen
WATANI: MY HOMELAND
Marcel Mettelsiefen and Stephen Ellis
THE WHITE HELMETS
Orlando von Einsiedel and Joanna Natasegara
BEST SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION)
ENNEMIS INTÉRIEURS
Sélim Azzazi
LA FEMME ET LE TGV
Timo von Gunten and Giacun Caduff
SILENT NIGHTS
Aske Bang and Kim Magnusson
SING
Kristof Deák and Anna Udvardy
TIMECODE
Juanjo Giménez
BEST SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)
BLIND VAYSHA
Theodore Ushev
BORROWED TIME
Andrew Coats and Lou Hamou-Lhadj
PEAR CIDER AND CIGARETTES
Robert Valley and Cara Speller
PEARL
Patrick Osborne
PIPER
Alan Barillaro and Marc Sondheimer
Top Photo: Lionsgate
William Bibbiani (everyone calls him ‘Bibbs’) is Crave’s film content editor and critic. You can hear him every week on The B-Movies Podcast and Canceled Too Soon, and watch him on the weekly YouTube series Most Craved, Rapid Reviews and What the Flick. Follow his rantings on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
