The 89th Oscar Nominations Are Here

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...

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Personal Ballots: Best Actor and Best Actress

And so it's come to this, the finale of the traditional Oscar-like categories in our own annual Film Bitch Awards. All the nominations have been announced in the first round ("special" non-Oscar related categories still to come). It's years like this when I wish YOU wish 5 were a much larger number in so many fields. There were seven leading ladies I really wanted to honor and six leading men but five does not equal six or seven. Alas. It's also strange when films you really love are denied any nominations in your own prizes. Such was the fate of one film from my top ten list (Embrace of the Serpent). Fences and Lion, two Oscar hopefuls I'm quite fond of, also look deceptively unloved with only two nominations each though with both Best Actor and Best Actress citations, Fences can't complain. 

tfw when you realize you're nominated for a Film Bitch Award. (Huppert plays it cool)

In the final nomination tally, 35 movies received at least one nomination, with Arrival and La La Land leading the pack with 8 nominations each (will they also lead the Oscar nods?). The Handmaiden, Moonlight, 20th Century Women, and Jackie trailed not so far behind. The rest of the films weren't as lucky but perhaps they'll rise in the "special" categories to come. 

Page 1 Picture, Director, Screenplay, Animation
Page 2 Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress
Page 3 Visual Categories: Cinematography, Costume Design, etcetera...
Page 4 Aural Categories: Song, Score, etcetera

Beauty vs Beast: Disobey

Jason from MNPP here. I probably wouldn't have thought about John Carpenter's 1988 goofy sci-fi classic They Live in relation to politics this year if the film hadn't been dragged kicking and screaming into the conversation by a bunch of Donald Trump's Nazi followers (in my best Carrie Bradshaw voice-over voice: "And so I wondered -- are the terms 'Nazi' and 'Donald Trump Follower' redundant?").

But now that the film has been dragged into the conversation a story about a bunch of elite monsters blinding the populace while they loot the Earth doesn't exactly sound like the world's most far-out science-fiction story these days. So with the Inauguration looming like an orange-haired mushroom cloud before us - and, on a less fatalistic note, with it being John Carpenter's 69th birthday today - let's assume our places.

PREVIOUSLY You guys gave me hope for humanity with last week's competition facing off the two Best Actress winners from the Globes - that's not meant as a knock on Emma Stone or her performance in La La Land but if a performance as sharp and unfriendly as Isabelle Huppert's in Elle can grab 70% of our vote, then maybe one day Yes We Can again. Said Evan:

"Let's not kid ourselves: Michele could gut Mia with that ax and then send a letter of condolence back to Mia's folks in Boulder City, all before "le petit dejeuner.""

Can "Hidden Figures" and "La La Land" get other films greenlit?

If you believe that success for one movie inspires greenlit for similar movies, than now is the time for filmmakers to pitch movies with black female leads and new movie musicals! Both Hidden Figures and La La Land are shaping up to be giant hits. And that's before Oscar nominations give them another boost. Hidden Figures fell only 10% in its second wide weekend which is non-existent as drops go, indicating amazing word of mouth and potentially very long legs with audiences. Meanwhile La La Land should be at $100 million in no time. Question: how many musical hits do there need to be exactly before Hollywood gets that people like them? Chicago, Dreamgirls, Hairspray, Les Miz all grossed over $100 million stateside in the past 15 years and still people act like "oh, musicals. dead genre. nobody will go see them!"...

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GALECA Nominees

By Glenn Dunks.

The Film Experience would be remiss to not mention the nominations of the Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association (GALECA) given there are multiple members among the writing team here. Last year the organisation went all in on Carol for obvious reasons, winning five awards. This year another Oscar-favored film with LGBTQ themes leads the pack with seven nominations.

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