LA LA LAND AT OSCARS
MUSICAL TIPPED FOR ACADEMY ROUT
HOLLYWOOD will be sprinkled with stardust today (Australian time) at the Oscars, with dreamy nostalgic musical La La Land tipped for glory on the industry’s biggest night.
Damien Chazelle’s glossy tribute to the all-singing, alldancing Golden Age of Tinseltown’s studio system is vying for 13 statuettes, and many of its 14 nominees are sure-fire winners – if the oddsmakers are right.
The film, which stars Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling as an aspiring actress and a struggling jazz musician who fall in love in Los Angeles, has charmed critics the world over and returned more than 10 times its $30 million budget.
Gold Derby, a site that collates the awards predictions of experts, had the musical as a clear favourite in 10 categories on Saturday, including best film, director, actress, score and song.
But it is expected to fall short of the record 11 statuettes achieved by Ben-Hur (1959), Titanic (1998) and The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, (2003).
La La Land will vie for best picture honours with eight films including alien thriller Arrival, family drama Manchester by the Sea, and Moonlight, the coming-of-age story of an African-American in Miami.
The most intriguing race is for best actor, which for weeks looked like a lock for Manches- ter by the Sea star Casey Affleck until a late surge by Denzel Washington ( Fences), who now has the momentum.
“It’s pretty exciting. I’ve only been once before. I was a lot younger and I didn’t fully appreciate the significance of it,” said Affleck, 41, who was a losing best supporting actor nominee in 2008.
“There are a lot of people in the Academy who I admire. Denzel Washington is one of the people who taught me how to act and I’ve never met the man.”
Stone is expected to bag her first statuette in the best actress category despite a late push from France’s Isabelle Huppert, who already has a Golden Globe and Spirit Award for rape-revenge thriller Elle. Gosling is expected to be comfortably behind Affleck and Washington in best actor, however, languishing alongside Andrew Garfield ( Hacksaw Ridge) and Viggo Mortensen ( Captain Fantastic).
Televised live by US channel ABC and shown around the world, the highlight of the Tinseltown calendar will be held at Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre, and hosted by latenight talk show host Jimmy Kimmel.
Nine will screen the 89th Academy Awards live from 12.30pm AEDT today.
There will be a repeat at 7.40pm on 9GEM.