Last week the nominations for the 89th Academy Awards were unveiled. After some time thinking on it and seeing the results of other awards (SAG in particular), I’ve got these thoughts to share.
Best Picture
Arrival – Shawn Levy, Dan Levine, Aaron Ryder, and David Linde.
Fences – Scott Rudin, Denzel Washington, and Todd Black
Hacksaw Ridge – Bill Mechanic and David Permut
Hell or High Water – Carla Hacken and Julie Yorn
Hidden Figures – Donna Gigliotti, Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping, Pharrell Williams, and Theodore Melfi
La La Land – Fred Berger, Jordan Horowitz, and Marc Platt
Lion – Emile Sherman, Iain Canning, and Angie Fielder
Manchester by the Sea – Matt Damon, Kimberly Steward, Chris Moore, Lauren Beck, and Kevin J. Walsh
Moonlight – Adele Romanski, Dede Gardner, and Jeremy Kleiner
Sure enough, the five I selected all made it on here. The other four probably don’t stand much of a chance, so it was just as well.
Best Director
Damien Chazelle – La La Land
Mel Gibson – Hacksaw Ridge
Barry Jenkins – Moonlight
Kenneth Lonergan – Manchester by the Sea
Denis Villeneuve – Arrival
Mel Gibson??!! Pigs are now flying
Best Actor
Casey Affleck – Manchester by the Sea
Andrew Garfield – Hacksaw Ridge
Ryan Gosling – La La Land
Viggo Mortensen – Captain Fantastic
Denzel Washington – Fences
Tom Hanks didn’t get a nomination after all (though someone should’ve told the person who reported on the website that he did). The Golden Globes made it seem to be down to Affleck and Gosling, but Washington’s SAG win propels him back into the running.
Best Actress
Isabelle Huppert – Elle
Ruth Negga – Loving
Natalie Portman – Jackie
Emma Stone – La La Land
Meryl Streep – Florence Foster Jenkins
Also not getting nominated but erroneously given one on the site is Amy Adams, who’s “always a bridesmaid” narrative will have to wait for next time. The SAG went to Stone, but she didn’t have Huppert to contend with. No such luck this time.
Best Supporting Actor
Mahershala Ali – Moonlight
Jeff Bridges – Hell or High Water
Lucas Hedges – Manchester by the Sea
Dev Patel – Lion
Michael Shannon – Nocturnal Animals
I was totally wrong about Aaron Taylor-Johnson ending up here, but without him this race is a bit more unpredictable. I imagine though that SAG champ Ali has this.
Best Supporting Actress
Viola Davis – Fences
Naomie Harris – Moonlight
Nicole Kidman – Lion
Octavia Spencer – Hidden Figures
Michelle Williams – Manchester by the Sea
This has been the exact same lineup for the past few award shows now. And like those, bet on Davis.
Best Original Screenplay
Hell or High Water – Taylor Sheridan
La La Land – Damien Chazelle
The Lobster – Yorgos Lanthimos and Efthimis Filippou
Manchester by the Sea – Kenneth Lonergan
20th Century Woman – Mike Mills
Was there really no room for The Nice Guys here?
Best Adapted Screenplay
Arrival – Eric Heisserer
Fences – August Wilson
Hidden Figures – Allison Schroeder and Theodore Melfi
Lion – Luke Davies
Moonlight – Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney
I’m not very familiar with the original works to know how the film versions measure up, but that the Fences and Moonlight scripts coming from the playwrights themselves is interesting to note.
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
Guess that answers my question as to what the notable international releases were.
Best Foreign Language Film
Land of Mine (Denmark) – Martin Zandvliet
A Man Called Ove (Sweden) – Hannes Holm
The Salesman (Iran) – Asghar Farhadi
Tanna (Australia) – Martin Butler and Bentley Dean
Toni Erdmann (Germany) – Maren Ade
No Elle? Really?
Best Documentary – Feature Film
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
I have a feeling 13th will take this for DuVernay alone.
Best Documentary – Short Subject
Extremis – Dan Krauss
4.1 Miles – Daphne Matziaraki
Joe’s Viloin – Kahane Cooperman and Raphaela Neihausen
Watani: My Homeland – Marcel Mettelsiefen and Stephen Ellis
The White Helmets – Orlando von Einsiedel and Joanna Natasegara
I don’t really know anything about these to give any kind of response, sorry.
Best Live Action Short Film
Ennemis intérieurs – Sélim Azzazi
La Femme et le TGV – Timo von Gunten and Giacun Caduff
Silent Nights – Aske Bang and Kim Magnusson
Sing – Kristóf Deák and Anna Udvardy
Timecode – Juanjo Giménez
Or these.
Best Animated Short Film
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
Or these (I do like that title of the middle one though).
Best Original Score
Jackie – Mica Levi
La La Land – Justin Hurwitz
Lion – Dustin O’Halloran and Hauschka
Moonloight – Nicholas Britell
Passengers – Thomas Newman
Or these.
Best 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 Feeling1” from Trolls – Music and Lyric by Justin Timberlake, Max Martin, and Karl John 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
The double nominations for La La Land, barring a tie, ensure that even if the movie wins everything else, it won’t be making a clean sweep. Meanwhile, Miranda has the chance here to become the newest (and youngest) EGOT winner.
Best 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
A lot of good sound-dependent choices here, but La La Land being specifically about music could give it an edge.
Best 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
Ditto.
Best Production Design
Arrival – Patrice Vermette and Paul Hotte
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them – Stuart Craig and Anna Pinnock
Hail, Caesar! – Jess Gonchor and Nancu Haigh
La La Land – Sandy Reynolds-Wasco and David Wasco
Passengers – Guy Hendrix Dyas and Gene Serdena
Let’s see: scifi/fantasy set in the present, scifi/fantasy set in the past, Hollywood set in the past, Hollywood set in the present, and scifi/fantasy set in the future. But despite sounding like the most mundane among them, La La Land wouldn’t be here if it weren’t doing something special.
Best Cinematography
Arrival – Bradford Young
La La Land – Linus Sandgren
Lion – Greg Fraser
Moonlight – James Laxton
Silence – Rodrigo Prieto
The sole nomination for Silence, but I’m sensing that the ones with more have a greater shot.
Best Makeup and Hair Styling
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
Ah, Suicide Squad, the only picture this year to get both Oscar and Razzie nominations. Ironically, it has better luck here.
Best 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
With 4 out of 5 being period pieces, Zophres might have a unique advantage. But don’t count out Atwood, a big name in this field.
Best 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
Tough to say. The more action-heavies could take it, but the other genres do demonstrate just as much prowess with their scenes.
Best Visual Effects
Deepwater Horizon – Craig Hammeck, 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
Having an animated film included here is highly unusual to say the least. We also see three Disney films competing against each other, and within two of those a pair of brothers.
Honorary Award Recipients
Jackie Chan
Anne V. Coates
Lynn Stalmaster
Frederick Wiseman
I didn’t think I’d ever see Chan get an Oscar; a very inspired selection. And documentary pro Wiseman has been due for a long time.
What will happen? Tune in February 26th.
