La La Land receives record-equalling fourteen Oscar nominations; Hacksaw Ridge gets six

Wednesday, January 25, 2017 

Yesterday, La La Land, directed by Damien Chazelle, received a record-equalling fourteen Academy Awards nomination, tied with 1950s movie All About Eve and 1990's Titanic. Mel Gibson's HackSaw Ridge based on true story bagged six nominations.

File photo of Oscars' nominee Ryan Gosling from file.
Image: Raffi Asdourian (Flickr).

The movie, featuring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, received nominations in all major categories. Gosling and Stone received nominations for Best Actor and Actress respectively. The other nominations include Best Picture, Director, Cinematography, Costume Design, Film-editing, Original Score, Production Design, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing and Original Screenplay. Two songs from the movie, Audition (The Fools Who Dream) and City of Stars, received nominations for best original song. Lionsgate studio received 26 nominations — more than any other studio.

Andrew Garfield, who previously starred in The Amazing Spider-Man along with Emma Stone, competes with Gosling for his role in Hacksaw Ridge. Based on the true story of US combat medic Desmond Doss, the movie has received six nominations including Best Picture, Actor in Leading Role, Best Director, Film Editing, Sound Editing and Sound Mixing — La La Land also receiving nominations in these categories. Lion and Manchester by the Sea also received six nominations.

Author J.K. Rowling's screenwriting début Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them starring Eddie Redmayne received two nominations for costume design and production design. Redmayne won the award for best actor two years ago for playing Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything and was nominated last year for The Danish Girl.

This year, six black actors received nominations setting a new record. The hashtag #OscarsSoWhite was mentioned lot of times on Twitter as no non-white received nominations for the past two years. April Reign, creator of the hashtag, said "Everyone is saying the Oscars are more diverse this year. No they're not. They're blacker, but where are the Latinx movies, the LGBTQIA movies? The Asian American/Pacific Islander community has had a worse year. We can't forget just because we have black nominees this year." Bradford Young, cinematographer of Arrival, is the first African-American to be nominated and Joi McMillon – editor of Moonlight – is the first non-white woman to receive nomination. Mahershala Ali, Naomie Harris, Viola Davis, Dev Patel, and Octavia Spencer are the non-white people who are nominated for their supporting roles.

Disney's Zootopia and Moana received nominations for Best Animated Feature film. Pixar's Finding Dory did not receive this nomination. Last year, Pixar's The Good Dinosaur also missed the nomination but Pixar's Inside Out, directed by Pete Docter, won the award.

Manchester by the Sea's nomination made the e-commerce website Amazon.com the first movie streaming company to earn a nomination for the Best Picture category. Arrival bagged eight nominations. Florence Foster Jenkins starring Meryl Streep nominated for Best Actress earned her 20th career Oscars nomination.

The award ceremony is to be held on February 26 to be hosted by Jimmy Kimmel.

Sources

• Brooks Barnes. "Oscar Nominations 2017: 14 for ‘La La Land,’ and 6 for Black Actors" — The New York Times, January 24, 2017
• Glen Weldon. "2017 Oscar Nominations: 'La La Land' Dominates, 'Moonlight' Shines" — National Public Radio, January 24, 2017
• Tre'vell Anderson. "#OscarsSoWhite’s April Reign: Films are more black this year, ‘not more diverse’" — LA Times, January 24, 2017
• "La La Land - Official movie site" — La La Land, January 24, 2017 (date of access)
• "Hacksaw Ridge - Official Movie Site" — Hacksaw Ridge, January 24, 2017 (date of access)
• "The Amazing Spider-Man" — Sony Pictures, January 24, 2017 (date of access)
• Pixar. "InsideOut on Twitter" — Twitter, February 28, 2016
• "Eddie Redmayne - Awards" — IMDb, January 25, 2017 (date of access)
• "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them - Official Website" — Warner Bros., January 25, 2017 (date of access)