Damien Chazelle’s hit musical La La Land continued its impressive hot streak this morning by receiving a record-tying 14 Oscar Nominations. This after the film took home a record 7 Golden Globe statues earlier this month. What’s next? Could the film possibly tie, or even break the record shared by Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, Titanic and Ben-Hur for most ever statues rewarded to a single film? We’ll have to wait until February 26th to find out.
Among La La Land’s 14 nominations are ones for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Actress for Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling, and Best Original Screenplay. Barry Jenkin’s Moonlight and Canadian Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival are next with 8 nominations each, while Manchester by the Sea, Hacksaw Ridge and Lion each received 6 nominations.
While the Best Picture category may seem crowded, it’s really going to end up being a fight between La La Land and Moonlight. Also getting nominated however is Arrival, Fences, Hacksaw Ridge, Hell or High Water, Hidden Figures, Lion and Manchester by the Sea. The Best Actress category on the other hand is pretty unpredictable. Isabelle Huppert won the Golden Globe for Elle in the Dram category, while Emma Stone won in the Musical or Comedy category for La La Land. Either one could take the award, but so could Loving’s Ruth Negga, Jackie’s Natalie Portman or Florence Foster Jenkins’ Meryl Streep. While the Best Actor Award could be a three horse race with Fence’s Denzel Washington up against La La Land’s Ryan Gosling and Manchester by the Sea’s Casey Affleck. The latter two of which both won Golden Globes. Andrew Garfield of Hacksaw Ridge and Viggo Mortensen of Captain Fantastic were also nominated.
As usual, there were several surprises and snubs during this year’s nominations. At least one thing that won’t come up however is the #OscarsSoWhite controversy of the last few years, as the nominees are rather diverse. Some of the surprises that did come though are a lack of Best Picture nominations for the films Jackie, Loving and Sully. It was also surprising that both Amy Adams and Annette Benning didn’t get nominated for their work in Arrival and 20th Century Women respectively. Tom Hanks, a favourite among critics and fans a like, didn’t see an Oscar nomination for his turn in Sully either. Denzel Washington really should have gotten a Best Director nomination for his film Fences. And one of the biggest shockers of all, Finding Dory, one of the biggest hits of the year, didn’t get nominated for Best Animated Film. What isn’t a surprise though, Deadpool didn’t receive a single Oscar nomination, despite the push from the studio.
The 89th annual Academy Awards will take place on February 26 at 7 p.m. ET on ABC, with host Jimmy Kimmel.
