La La Land equals record for most Oscar nominations
La La Land, the movie musical which broke records at the Golden Globes earlier this month – where it took more awards than any other film in history – looks likely to repeat the trick at February’s Oscars.
Damien Chazelle’s movie musical is up for picture, director, actor, actress, original screenplay, cinematography, costume design, film editing, original score, original song (for both City of Stars and Audition), production design, sound editing and sound mixing.
This puts it level-pegging with current nominee record-holders All About Eve (1950) and Titanic (1997) and puts it on course for continued celebration at the ceremony itself. All About Eve went on to win six Oscars; Titanic took 11.
Such was the dominance of Chazelle’s hymn to Hollywood that other films were left in the relative cold, regardless of how impressive their achievements.
Moonlight, Barry Jenkins’s coming-of-age tale about a young black man at three stages of his life, came in joint second with eight nods, alongside Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi, Arrival (although it failed to land recognition for star Amy Adams).
Meanwhile Manchester by the Sea, Kenneth Lonergan’s drama about a grief-stricken Boston janitor, followed with six, alongside adoption drama Lion and Mel Gibson’s war epic Hacksaw Ridge.
Fences, Denzel Washington’s adaptation of the August Wilson play, took four, as did Hidden Figures, Theodore Melfi’s reallife tale of three pioneering black female mathematicians working at Nasa in 1962.
The spread of nominees seems sufficiently diverse to ward off a third consecutive year of protests. The lack of a single acting nominee of colour in the 2016 and 2015 lists prompted widespread outrage, revolving around the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag.
The Academy has taken radical action to try and address the issue, with the 683 new invitees last summer being 46% women and 41% people of colour. This brings the total number of voting members to over 7,000; around 500 more than the Baftas, and around 6,900 more than the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, who decide the Golden Globes.
Another record was broken in the best actress category, with Meryl Streep beating her own total of 19 Oscar nominations to make it 20 for the title role as a deluded singer in Stephen Frears’s Florence Foster Jenkins.
She will compete alongside Loving’s Ruth Negga, Emma Stone, for La La Land, Natalie Portman for Pablo Larrain’s Jackie Kennedy biopic and Isabelle Huppert, who won the Golden Globe for her role as a formidable Parisian who takes unusual revenge on her rapist in Paul Verhoeven’s controversial comedy/drama Elle.
That film was omitted from the foreign language shortlist, but frontrunner Toni Erdmann, a three hour German comedy about a larky father and his uptight daughter did make the final cut.
The candidates will competing for best documentary are a more predictable selection: Fire at Sea, I Am Not Your Negro, Life Animated, OJ: Made in America and 13th, Ava DuVernay’s shocking study of prison prejudice in the US, which is fancied to take the prize following DuVernay’s snub for Martin Luther King drama Selma a few years ago.
There was a little cheer for Martin Scorsese, whose religious epic Silence – which failed to score a single nomination from the Baftas or the Globes – was recognised for cinematography. Sully, Clint Eastwood’s plane crash drama, was similarly lucky, scoring a sound editing nod following similar earlier snubs.
Tom Ford’s Nocturnal Animals did worse than anticipated, landing just a supporting actor nomination for Michael Shannon (rather than co-star Aaron Taylor Johnson, who won the equivalent category at the Golden Globes).
And there was disappointment for Deadpool, Ryan Reynolds’ Rrated superhero comedy, which had been predicted to follow its $783m global box office take with a best picture nod, but instead went home empty handed. Whit Stillman’s Jane Austen adaptation, Love & Friendship, was also unrecognised – likewise British hopefuls I, Daniel Blake and American Honey.
The best picture nomination for Manchester by the Sea marks a first for Amazon, who backed the film and who are now the first streaming service in the running at the Oscars.
The Academy broke with tradition for yesterday’s announcement, which saw the categories being read out by previous nominees including Jennifer Hudson, Brie Larson, Marcia Gay Harden and Jason Reitman in an audience-free environment. The ditching of the usual press conference format attracted some backlash from PRs and distributors, for whom attendance was seen as a point of pride.
The Golden Globes took place two weeks ago and saw La La Land go home with seven trophies. But the best drama gong was won by Moonlight; whether it repeats the trick of 12 Years a Slave four years ago and goes on to take best picture will be revealed on 26 February.
This year’s Oscars will be presented at a ceremony hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and, following the positive reaction to Meryl Streep’s speech attacking Donald Trump at the Globes, it is expected to be a highly political occasion.