This morning saw the announcement of the nominees were announced for the 89th annual Academy Awards. The nominees were announced in a different fashion this year, opting more for pseudo-documentary testimonials from past nominees and winners, instead of the usual live event. The question on everyone’s mind this year is whether there would be any different in the diversity of the nominees after the #OscarsSoWhite controversy from the last few years.
So, here are my random thoughts on the Oscar nominees:
- Probably the biggest surprise of the leading nominees is the eight nominations for Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival, which is a huge achievement for the Canadian director.
- Four of the nine Best Picture nominees feature non-white protagonists, which is definitely an improvement from zero, even if two of those four are from white directors.
- Isabelle Huppert receives a Best Actress nomination for Elle, even though the film itself didn’t even make the Foreign Language Film shortlist
- There is at least one non-white actor in each of the acting categories. Best Supporting Actress has three.
- As always, Disney has the best chance at winning Best Animated Film with two of the five nominations
- Martin Scorsese‘s Silence received a nomination for Cinematography and nothing else. Quite odd for such an acclaimed filmmaker. Even Hugo received multiple Oscar nominations.
- Even though the Best Picture nominees are a little more diverse, there is only one non-white nominee for Best Director
- The documentary category is arguably the most diverse this year, with four of the five films being from non-white directors.
- Toni Erdmann is probably my bet for Best Foreign Language Film, though you never know with this category.
- A Man from Ove really stands out in the Make-Up and Hairstyling category
- Does La La Land really need two Best Song nominees? I personally would have liked to see “Drive It Like You Stole It” from Sing Street nominated.
- Interesting that the stop motion film Kubo and the Two Strings has a nomination for Best Visual Effects
Well, those are my thoughts on the nominees. The 89th annual Academy Awards will be presented on February 26, 2017.
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