My Thoughts on the 2017 Oscar Nominations

My Thoughts 

It's that time of year again as the awards season circuit comes to a close with the Oscars fast approaching and the annual announcement of the films nominated for the various categories. This morning the Oscars nominations were released so once again, like I have the previous two years, I will cover them and provide some analysis into my feelings on the nods. One thing I'm quite proud of is the fact I've seen almost everything nominated in every category with only a few exceptions, I saw eight of the nine Best Picture nominees if that's any indication. Once again, I will also share reviews of the Best Picture nominees weekly till the awards ceremony and figure out the logistics of that soon. That weekend I will make a post with my predictions of who will likely win and who I personally feel should win and then the night of the Academy Awards I will write out a post as winners are announced that will show my predictions and the actual winners. I won't breakdown my opinions on each category because that would simply make this post unnecessarily long but here are my biggest takeaways. The Best Animated Feature and Best Visual Effects nominees were about as expected and I'm enthused that La La Land picked up a record breaking fourteen nominations (tied with Titanic and All About Eve) considering that was my favorite film of the year, you can go to my Top 10 Movies of 2016 list to check out why that is if you haven't read it already. I'm also glad to see Arrival get a lot of appreciation because it was another favorite from last year but I think not nominating Amy Adams for Best Actress was a huge snub. I feel nominating Meryl Streep over Amy Adams after Streep's infamous Golden Globes speech is a move against Donald Trump's idiotic tweet surmising that she's an overrated actress. I'm merely stating that Hollywood's liberal and wouldn't be surprised to see Streep actually win or something just so they "can stick it to the man." Also the fact that Meryl Streep now has twenty nominations and three wins to me makes the case alone that she's not overrated. While Streep was great in Florence Foster Jenkins, there were actresses more deserving for the nod over her this past year. As for some of my disappointments, I'm saddened to see no love for Sing Street in at least the Best Original Song category. Don't laugh but I'm also a little surprised that Deadpool was completely shut out, considering that it picked up substantial legitimate awards momentum in the last month with nominations from the Writer's Guild, Producer's Guild, Director's Guild, and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Prior to this month I wasn't expecting it to get any attention from the Academy considering the nature of being a crude action comedy comic book film, something that's typically not appreciated by the Academy outside of technical nominations, I was still holding out hope for at least a Best Adapted Screenplay nod. Overall, I'm fairly pleased with the nominees and will certainly be checking out a few of the films I missed out on in the coming weeks!

Nominations

Best Picture

"Arrival"
"Fences"
"Hacksaw Ridge"
"Hell or High Water"
"Hidden Figures"
"La La Land"
"Lion"
"Manchester By The Sea"
"Moonlight"

Best Director

Barry Jenkins, "Moonlight"
Damien Chazelle, "La La Land"
Denis Villeneuve, "Arrival"
Kenneth Lonergan, "Manchester By The Sea"
Mel Gibson, "Hacksaw Ridge"

Best Actress

Emma Stone, "La La Land"
Isabella Huppert, "Elle"
Meryl Streep, "Florence Foster Jenkins"
Natalie Portman, "Jackie"
Ruth Negga, "Loving"

Best Actor

Andrew Garfield, "Hacksaw Ridge"
Casey Affleck, "Manchester By The Sea"
Denzel Washington, "Fences"
Ryan Gosling, "La La Land"
Viggo Mortensen, "Captain Fantastic"

Best Supporting Actress

Michelle Williams, "Manchester By The Sea"
Naomie Harris, "Moonlight"
Nicole Kidman, "Lion"
Octavia Spencer, "Hidden Figures"
Viola Davis, "Fences"

Best Supporting Actor

Dev Patel, "Lion"
Jeff Bridges, "Hell or High Water"
Lucas Hedges, "Manchester By The Sea"
Mahershala Ali, "Moonlight"
Michael Shannon, "Nocturnal Animals"

Best Adapted Screenplay

Allison Schroeder, Theodore Melfi, "Hidden Figures"
August Wilson, "Fences"
Barry Jenkins, Tarell McCraney, "Moonlight"
Eric Heisserer, "Arrival"
Luke Davies, "Lion"

Best Original Screenplay

Damien Chazelle, "La La Land"
Efthymis Filippou, Yorgos Lanthimos, "The Lobster"
Kenneth Lonergan, "Manchester By The Sea"
Mike Mills, "20th Century Woman"
Taylor Sheridan, "Hell or High Water"

Best Foreign Language Film

"A Man Called Ove"
"Land of Mine"
"Tanna"
"Toni Erdmann"
"The Salesman"

Best Documentary Feature

"13th"
"Fire at Sea"
"I Am Not Your Negro"
"Life, Animated"
"O.J.: Made in America"

Best Animated Feature

"Kubo and the Two Strings"
"My Life as a Zucchini"
"Moana"
"The Red Turtle"
"Zootopia"

Best Film Editing

"Arrival"
"Hacksaw Ridge"
"Hell or High Water"
"La La Land"
"Moonlight"

Best Original Song

"Audition (The Fools Who Dream)" from "La La Land" (written by Justin Hurwitz, Benj Pasek, and Justin Paul)
"Can't Stop The Feeling" from "Trolls" (written by Justin Timberlake, Max Martin, and Shellback)
"City of Stars" from "La La Land" (written by Justin Hurwitz, Benj Pasek, and Justin Paul)
"The Empty Chair" from "Jim: The James Foley Story" (written by J. Ralph and Sting)
"How Far I'll Go" from "Moana" (written by Lin Manuel Miranda)

Best Original Score

Dustin O'Halloran and Hauschka, "Lion"
Justin Hurwitz, "La La Land"
Mica Levi, "Jackie"
Nicholas Britel, "Moonlight"
Thomas Newman, "Passengers"

Best Cinematography

Bradford Young, "Arrival"
Greig Fraser, "Lion"
James Laxton, "Moonlight"
Linus Sandgren, "La La Land"
Rodrigo Prieto, "Silence"

Best Costume Design

"Allied"
"Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them"
"Florence Foster Jenkins"
"Jackie"
"La La Land"

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

"A Man Called Ove"
"Star Trek Beyond"
"Suicide Squad"

Best Production Design

David Wasco, Sandy Reynolds-Wasco, "La La Land"
Guy Hendrix Das, "Passengers"
Jess Gonchor, Nancy Haigh, "Hail Caesar!"
Patrice Vermette, "Arrival"
Stuart Craig, James Hambige, Anna Pinnock, "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them"

Best Sound Editing

"Arrival"
"Deepwater Horizon"
"Hacksaw Ridge"
"La La Land"
"Sully"

Best Sound Mixing

"13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi"
"Arrival"
"Hacksaw Ridge"
"La La Land"
"Rogue One: A Star Wars Story"

Best Visual Effects

"Deepwater Horizon"
"Doctor Strange"
"The Jungle Book"
"Kubo and the Two Strings"
"Rogue One: A Star Wars Story"

Best Short Film, Live Action

"Ennemis Intérieurs"
"La Femme et la TGV"
"Silent Nights"
"Sing"
"Timecode"

Best Short Film, Animated

"Blind Vaysha"
"Borrowed Time"
"Pearl"
"Pear and Cider Cigarettes"
"Piper"

Best Documentary, Short Subject

"4.1 Miles"
"Extremis"
"The Mute's House"
"Watani: My Homeland"
"The White Helmets"