The 89th Oscar Nominations Are Here
Tuesday, January 24, 2017 at 8:50AM Oscar night is February 26th, 2017. Here are the nominees along with how I fared on my punditry and some interesting stats. Also Read: "8 Big Takeaways from the Nominations" and "Sad Snubs and Curious Inclusions", "Nominations that made us happy" and "Curious Statistics - Oscar Numbers"
La La Land enters Oscar history with 14 nominations, the most ever
BEST PICTURE:
“Arrival”
“Fences”
“Hacksaw Ridge”
“Hell or High Water”
“Hidden Figures”
“La La Land”
“Manchester by the Sea”
“Lion”
“Moonlight”
How'd I do on my predictions: 9/9 though this wasn't that difficult I will readily admit
History Made: La La Land, with 14 nominations, ties the record of "most nominations ever" with Titanic and All About Eve
BEST ACTOR
Casey Affleck
Andrew Garfield
Ryan Gosling
Viggo Mortensen
Denzel Washington
How'd I do on my predictions: 5/5. This was the expected list, no surprises...
BEST ACTRESS
Isabelle Huppert
Ruth Negga
Natalie Portman
Emma Stone
Meryl Streep
How'd I do on my predictions: 4/5. I had Ruth Negga in the list until the last moment. Argh! Amy Adams, as I suggested in November, had to sit this one out. Let us not discuss my depression over the Bening being left out.
History Made: As with every time Meryl makes a movie, history made. It's her 20th nomination. Soon she will double the nomination counts of her nearest rivals...
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Mahershala Ali
Jeff Bridges
Lucas Hedges
Dev Patel
Michael Shannon
How'd I do on my predictions: 4/5 Hugh Grant missed the list after all... but that's okay as it was a fraudulent campaign -- he was totally a lead, however great he was. I nominated him in lead.
History made: This is the first time since the 1970s I understand when a Golden Globe winner (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) was not nominated in this category.
Stat-Love: Lucas Hedges is the 8th youngest man ever nominated in this category. He's 20 years old. If he wins he'll be the youngest winner ever in the category.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Viola Davis
Naomie Harris
Nicole Kidman
Octavia Spencer
Michelle Williams
How'd I do on my predictions: 5/5. But this was the expected list. It'd be fascinating to know who was sixth.
History Made: Viola Davis is now the most nominated black woman of all time with 3. There are several people tied in second place with 2 nominations
BEST DIRECTOR
Denis Villeneuve
Mel Gibson
Damien Chazelle
Kenneth Lonergan
Barry Jenkins
How'd I do on my predictions: 4/5. The big surprise here was Mel Gibson. We figured, incorrectly that if the more populist DGA didn't nominate him he wouldn't make it with the more elitist Academy. Better luck next time Garth Davis of Lion breakthrough.
Stat-Love: 4/5 of these nominees are first timers in this category. Barry Jenkins is only the 4th black director nominated in the category. None have won.
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
“Kubo and the Two Strings”
“Moana”
“My Life as a Zucchini”
“The Red Turtle”
“Zootopia”
How'd I do on my predictions: 5/5. Go me! I am relieved that Finding Dory wasn't nominated. We really don't need the Oscars to honor cash grab sequels when they can be honoring gorgeous films that need the support like The Red Turtle.
Stat-Love: This is getting to be regular, isn't it? 3 American productions, 2 foreign in animated.
ANIMATED SHORT
“Blind Vaysha”
“Borrowed Time”
“Pear Cider and Cigarettes”
“Pearl”
“Piper”
How'd I do on my predictions: 2/5 oops. But I had 2 of these as my alternates ;)
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
“Arrival”
“Fences”
“Hidden Figures”
“Lion”
“Moonlight”
How'd I do on my predictions: 4/5. I assumed Fences would miss for a surging Nocturnal Animals but Oscar didn't like that movie in the way BAFTA and the Globes did.
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
“Hell or High Water”
“La La Land”
“The Lobster”
“Manchester by the Sea”
“20th Century Women”
How'd I do on my predictions: 4/5 I thought Captain Fantastic would squeeze out 20th Century Women. I love both movies but I'm so happy 20th Century Women wasn't completely ignored.
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
“Arrival”
“La La Land”
“Lion”
“Moonlight”
“Silence”
How'd I do on my predictions: 5/5. Gorgeous movies all.
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
“Fire at Sea”
“I Am Not Your Negro”
“Life Animated”
“OJ: Made in America”
“13th”
How'd I do on my predictions: 5/5 WHOA. I am surprised at my success.
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
“Extremist”
“4.1 Miles”
“Joe’s Violin”
“Watani My Homeland”
“The White Helmets”
How'd I do on my predictions: 4/5 I missed 4.1 miles
BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT
“Ennemis Interieurs”
“La Femme et le TGV”
“Silent Nights”
“Sing”
“Timecode”
How'd I do on my predictions: 2/5. Oops.
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
“A Man Called Ove”
“Land of Mine”
“Tanna”
“The Salesman”
“Toni Erdmann”
How'd I do on my predictions: 5/5 Yay! It's a good thing to considering how we like to be thought of as the top site for this category.
History Made: This is Australia's first nomination in this category with Tanna
BEST FILM EDITING
“Arrival”
“Hacksaw Ridge”
“Hell or High Water”
“La La Land”
“Moonlight”
How'd I do on my predictions: 5/5
History Made: Joi McMillion who edited Moonlight (with Nat Sanders) is the first African-American woman nominated for film editing.
BEST SOUND EDITING
“Arrival”
“Deep Water Horizon”
“Hacksaw Ridge”
“La La Land”
“Sully”
How'd I do on my predictions: 4/5 I missed La La Land and had predicted Deadpool
BEST SOUND MIXING
“Arrival”
“Hacksaw Ridge”
“La La Land”
“Rogue One”
“13 Hours”
How'd I do on my predictions: 3/5 I missed 13 Hours (wtf) and Rogue One and had predicted Sully and Deepwater Horizon just as I had with sound mixing...
Stat-Love: ...but there was a far greater split in these categories this year than usual. They usually line up 4/5 but this year 3/5
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
“Arrival”
“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”
“Hail Caesar!”
“La La Land”
“Passengers”
How'd I do on my predictions: 2/5 OUCH. OUCH. OUCH. I only guessed Fantastic Beasts and La La Land. I am horrified that The Handmaiden wasn't nominated but what can you do? It's very tough for foreign language films to break into regular Oscar categories.
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
“Jackie”
“La La Land”
“Lion”
“Moonlight”
“Passengers”
How'd I do on my predictions: 1/5. I think this is the worst I've ever done in this category. But it was impossible to predict this year if you believed, as I did given statistical evidence, that the music branch would never nominate this many first timers. They usually allow only one a year and 4 of these 5 are first time nominees.
History Made: John Williams (The BFG) is nominated in virtually every year in which he's eligible. The last time he missed the lineup was for Far and Away (1992) a quarter century ago! So his omission this year is a shock. Especially since the branch is so averse to new members.
BEST ORIGINAL SONG
Audition
Can’t Stop the Feeling
City of Stars
Empty Chair
How Far I’ll Go
How'd I do on my predictions: 4/5 I missed Can't Stop the Feeling
BEST MAKEUP AND HAIR
“A Man Called Ove”
“Star Trek Beyond”
“Suicide Squad”
How'd I do on my predictions: 1/3. Oops.
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
“Allied”
“Fantastic Beasts”
“Florence Foster Jenkins”
“Jackie”
“La La Land”
How'd I do on my predictions: 3/5. Missed Allied and Fantastic Beasts
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
“Deepwater Horizon”
“Doctor Strange”
“Jungle Book”
“Kubo”
“Rogue One”
How'd I do on my predictions: 4/5. Missed Deepwater Horizon as I thought Arrival love would pull that in despite it not having "Most" Visual Effects
Stat-Love: True to form Doctor Strange continued the tradition of Marvel Studios nabbing only 1 or 2 (in this case 1) nomination even when it looked like there'd be a good shot for multiple nods.
Reader Comments (112)
Ruth Negga over Amy Adams of Annette Bening? She obviously got helped from the Academy's newest colorblind acting voters: Nate Parker, Vivica A. Fox, Ice Cube, Gabrielle Union, Luis Guzman, Michael B. Jordan and John Boyega...
Amy Adams will be nominated again. Like Nathaniel articulately noted in November, the Actor's Branch is notoriously averse to nominating actors for sci-fi films (unless the film in question is a massive blockbuster like Gravity - and Sandra Bullock was entirely anchoring that film + it was a relatively weak year for best actress). In a competitive year for best actress such as this (with Bening, Blunt, and Henson hot on her heels as well), passion votes mattered a lot, and I think that's what pushed Huppert and Negga over the edge.
Let's stop talking about this year's Best Actress nominations- it hurts so much - and start focusing on next year. And since the category could easily be renamed from Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role to Best (or Smartest) Campaign by an Actress in a Leading Role, is The Bening ready to campaign for Film Stars don't Die in Liverpool , or are we going to do it for her ?
Tom , what a reductive comment!
...especially since, as an Irish actress, Negga is not "in the club" (nor is Boyega).
I saw Moonlight why was Ali singled out and not Rhodes talk about being the beating heart of a movie,Harris was miscast,very shaky performance,she never sold the history.
All in all, a great list of nominees that deserved to be announced in a better way than this boring live stream with only the name popping up in small letters. Hope they come back with the conference, stage, images of films and actors, and the audience cheering, laughing or acting surprised when a nominee's name is announced. That contributes to the emotion of the moment! But if they keep up what they did this year, I'll never bother watching the announcement again. It totally felt like visiting the Oscar website and reading them in a link.
Full disclosure: I thought La La Land was fine, but nothing more than that.
I can't help but think that La La Land is just a less effective version of 500 Days of Summer: Los Angeles, musical number(s), romance, a very defined visual palette, and [POSSIBLY VERY MILD SPOILER DEPENDING ON YOUR DEFINITION OF SPOILERS] the last five minutes of La La Land, which many people have told me they loved, very closely mimics a conceit in the final third of 500 Days.
Also, though 500 Days isn't a musical per se, the songs on the soundtrack are carefully chosen and are integral to the mood of the scenes they appear in.
Except I thought that 500 days played its emotional cards more ably, and, whatever can be said for La La Land's charm, 500 Days is much, much funnier. Does anyone else feel this overlap as strongly as I do?
Just to be clear so we don't go around blaming Ruth Negga for bumping Annette Bening or Amy Adams:
Annette Bening in 20th Century Women > Ruth Negga in Loving > Amy Adams in Arrival > Meryl Streep in Florence Foster Jenkins
Streep's nomination is totally expected--and a complete disgrace. One of the most flagrant and grotesque examples of unadulterated ass-kissing by the Academy. Shameful.
Bening's snub will join the history books along with Kathleen Turner in Body Heat and Jeremy Irons in Dead Ringers. Truly horrible.
my sentiments exactly, brookesboy.
Just had to speak up about how much I hated the Academy’s new way of presenting the Oscar nominations. Can it really be called live streaming when the presentation’s so canned and lifeless? For years the live early morning announcements have been absolute Oscar season highlights, crackling with a kind of moment to moment excitement generated from the well-paced reading of the names and the applause, gasps etc from within the room. Sure, it’s the kind of suspense only dogged Oscar followers would appreciate – but, after all, that’s exactly who’s watching. I love the kind of “anything might happen” atmosphere – because till the nominees are actually announced, the candidate field remains practically limitless. You just never know what totally unexpected names might pop up. Publicist Dorothea Sargent did an excellent piece recently in the Hollywood Reporter, taking the Academy to task for knocking this longstanding tradition on the head. I tried two live streaming sources this morning and both immediately froze. So I hastily switched to “Good Morning America” – and what a dog’s breakfast of grins, platitudes and disorganization that turned out to be. As for the actual Academy footage, the dutifully prepared sound bites from Jennifer Hudson and company were mostly painful – and the nominees’ names just emerged as a kind of aural blur spoken by some generic voice that might as well have been listing longitudes and latitudes. Talk about undercutting everything that makes the moment an event. I noted a few short negative reactions from Film Experience readers today. But somehow I expected more. I know we Oscar addicts are living in something of a bubble. But I was really hoping there’d be enough dissension among Oscarites that the Academy might get the message that this is not the way to go. Are they really planning to do it like this from now on? If so award season just lost a little of its lustre –and for no good reason.