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Oscar nominations — my own two bits, and a complete list

Oscar nominations — my own two bits, and a complete list

Last updated on: January 24, 2017 at 11:41 pm by Peter T. Chattaway

Oscar nominations — my own two bits, and a complete list 2017-01-24T23:41:27-08:00 Peter T. Chattaway

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It looks like La La Land is the movie to beat at this year’s Oscars.

The film, a jazzy musical that stars Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone as a musician and an actress trying to make their way in Hollywood, racked up 14 Academy Award nominations this morning — tying the record set by 1950’s All About Eve and 1997’s Titanic. However, because La La Land was nominated twice for original song, it is actually nominated in 13 categories — which is more than the 12 categories that All About Eve was nominated in but less than the 14 that Titanic was up for.

Traditionally, the movie with the most nominations tends to win Best Picture, and most pundits expect La La Land to follow that precedent. The fact that the Academy clearly loves movies about showbiz doesn’t hurt either: witness recent winners like 2011’s The Artist, 2012’s Argo and 2014’s Birdman. (All About Eve, the first film to get 14 nominations, was also about actors; it even begins with an awards show.)

But there is one important prognostication tool that might not bode well for this movie: the Screen Actors Guild, which announced its nominees in December, pointedly did not nominate La La Land for its ensemble award. (Every Best Picture winner since 1996 has at least been nominated for the SAG ensemble award.)

So, what other film could win the award if La La Land does not?

Historically, it is rare for a film to win Best Picture without at least being nominated for director, screenplay and film editing. And this year, apart from La La Land, the only other Best Picture nominees that received nods in those categories were Arrival and Moonlight, each of which garnered eight nominations altogether.

Of those two, Moonlight probably stands a better chance of beating La La Land, not least because two of its actors got Oscar nominations, whereas none of Arrival’s actors did — not even lead actress Amy Adams, who did get a SAG nomination.

But La La Land got almost as many nominations as those two films combined, so for now it remains the odds-on favorite to win the top prize on February 26.

Meanwhile, here are a few other points that jump out at me:

Bible-movie buffs might be happy to see that Hail, Caesar! got a nomination for its production design, which re-created multiple classic movie genres including the biblical epic. If we count Hail, Caesar! as a “Bible film” — though it’s really only partly about the making of a Bible movie — it would be the first feature-length film in that genre to get an Oscar nomination since 2004’s The Passion of the Christ.

It is also interesting to see how the directors of two previous — and very controversial — Jesus movies fared this year. Mel Gibson (The Passion of the Christ) and Martin Scorsese (The Last Temptation of Christ) both made movies set partly in Japan that star Andrew Garfield as a Christian who struggles to defend his religious principles — but whereas Scorsese’s Silence got just a single nomination for cinematography, Gibson’s Hacksaw Ridge got six nominations, including not only an acting nod for Garfield but a directing nod for Gibson himself. And with that, Gibson — eleven years after his infamous DUI arrest — would seem to be officially out of movie jail.

Also worth noting is that Garth Davis’s Lion was nominated for six awards including Best Picture — but Davis himself did not get a nomination. Davis, of course, is currently in post-production on Mary Magdalene starring Rooney Mara.

It’s also fun to see how movies in the animated and foreign-language categories got nominations outside of those “ghettos”. Kubo and the Two Strings was nominated for best animated film and for its visual effects, while A Man Called Ove, from Sweden, was nominated for best foreign language film and for its makeup. Also, Isabelle Huppert was nominated for her lead role in the French film Elle even though the film itself failed to get a nomination for best foreign language film. (The Academy didn’t even put that critically-acclaimed film on the foreign-language shortlist.)

Star Trek Beyond was nominated for its makeup, which makes it the seventh Star Trek movie (out of thirteen movies) to get at least one Oscar nomination. It is also the fourth film in the series to be nominated specifically for makeup. The only Star Trek film to actually win an Oscar was the 2009 reboot — which won for makeup.

And that about wraps up my first impressions … for now.

Here are the feature films that have been nominated for Oscars, from those with the most nods to those with only one. The titles of those I have seen are in bold:

14 nominations in 13 categories

La La Land — Picture, director (Damien Chazelle), original screenplay, cinematography, actor (Ryan Gosling), actress (Emma Stone), production design, costume design, film editing, original score, original song (x2), sound editing, sound mixing

8 nominations

Arrival — Picture, director (Denis Villeneuve), adapted screenplay, production design, cinematography, film editing, sound editing, sound mixing
Moonlight — Picture, director (Barry Jenkins), adapted screenplay, cinematography, supporting actor (Mahershala Ali), supporting actress (Naomie Harris), film editing, original score

6 nominations

Hacksaw Ridge — Picture, director (Mel Gibson), actor (Andrew Garfield), film editing, sound editing, sound mixing
Lion — Picture, adapted screenplay, cinematography, supporting actor (Dev Patel), supporting actress (Nicole Kidman), original score
Manchester by the Sea — Picture, director (Kenneth Lonergan), original screenplay, actor (Casey Affleck), supporting actor (Lucas Hedges), supporting actress (Michelle Williams)

4 nominations

Fences — Picture, adapted screenplay, actor (Denzel Washington), supporting actress (Viola Davis)
Hell or High Water — Picture, original screenplay, supporting actor (Jeff Bridges), film editing

3 nominations

Hidden Figures — Picture, adapted screenplay, supporting actress (Octavia Spencer)
Jackie — Actress (Natalie Portman), costume design, original score

2 nominations

Deepwater Horizon — Visual effects, sound editing
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them — Production design, costume design
Florence Foster Jenkins — Actress (Meryl Streep), visual effects
Kubo and the Two Strings — Animated feature, visual effects
A Man Called Ove — Foreign language film, makeup and hairstyling
Moana — Animated feature, original song
Passengers — Production design, original score
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story — Visual effects, sound mixing

1 nominations

Allied — Costume design
Captain Fantastic — Actor (Viggo Mortensen)
Doctor Strange — Visual effects
Elle — Actress (Isabelle Huppert)
Fire at Sea — Documentary feature
Hail, Caesar! — Production design
I Am Not Your Negro — Documentary feature
Jim: The James Foley Story — Original song
The Jungle Book — Visual effects
Land of Mine — Foreign language film
Life, Animated — Documentary feature
The Lobster — Original screenplay
Loving — Actress (Ruth Negga)
My Life as a Zucchini — Animated feature
Nocturnal Animals — Supporting actor (Michael Shannon)
O.J.: Made in America — Documentary feature
The Red Turtle — Animated feature
The Salesman — Foreign language film
Silence — Cinematography
Star Trek Beyond — Makeup and hairstyling
Suicide Squad — Makeup and hairstyling
Sully — Sound editing
Tanna — Foreign language film
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi — Sound mixing
13th — Documentary feature
Toni Erdmann — Foreign language film
Trolls — Original song
20th Century Women — Original screenplay
Zootopia — Animated feature

kubo and the two strings

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