The 2017 Oscar nominations were announced Jan. 24, and “La La Land” led the pack with a whopping 14 nominations, tying “Titanic” and “All About Eve” for the most nominations for a single film. As with any year, there were a number of surprising entries in the categories, as well as a fair number of glaring omissions.
Best Picture:
“Arrival”
“Fences”
“Hacksaw Ridge”
“Hell or High Water”
“Hidden Figures”
“La La Land”
“Lion”
“Manchester by the Sea”
“Moonlight”
“Lion” is the surprise hit of this year’s Academy Awards. In addition to Nicole Kidman’s predictable nomination, the film landed nominations for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor for Dev Patel and Best Adapted Screenplay. The inclusion of “Hidden Figures” in the mix was also a pleasant surprise. The film was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress for Octavia Spencer’s performance. However, Martin Scorsese's highly anticipated film “Silence” failed to garner any traction in this year’s award season. Despite the star studded cast and ambitious premise, the movie earned just one nomination for Best Cinematography. “Loving” didn’t receive much love either, even after a warm reception at Cannes early 2016.
Best Actor:
Casey Affleck for “Manchester by the Sea”
Andrew Garfield for “Hacksaw Ridge”
Ryan Gosling for “La La Land”
Viggo Mortensen for “Captain Fantastic”
Denzel Washington for “Fences”
Viggo Mortensen is perhaps the only shocking inclusion in this category for his role in the small indie film “Captain Fantastic.” Although his nominations at both the Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild Awards signaled a potential Oscar nod, his nomination was still a bit unexpected. The other major surprise is that Dev Patel was nominated in the supporting category rather than the lead, despite playing the central character in “Lion.”
Though Ruth Negga was deservingly nominated for her luminous performance in “Loving,” her counterpart Joel Edgerton was given the cold shoulder by the Academy. The Best Actor race was close this year, but Edgerton should have been given a nod for his understated yet deeply moving performance as a man fighting anti-miscegenation laws in Virginia in hopes of legitimizing his marriage.
Best Actress:
Isabelle Huppert for “Elle”
Ruth Negga for “Loving”
Natalie Portman for “Jackie”
Emma Stone for “La La Land”
Meryl Streep for “Florence Foster Jenkins”
Streep secured her 20th Oscar nomination for her role in “Florence Foster Jenkins” to the surprise of many. She is without question a legend, and she gave a great performance, but did she really warrant a nomination over Amy Adams? It seems a bit like a publicity stunt, especially after her acceptance speech of the Cecil B. DeMille award at the Golden Globes went viral.
Adams is perhaps the most shocking omission in any category this year, and absolutely deserved a nomination for her performance in the sci-fi film “Arrival.” Her absence is especially confusing given that “Arrival” was nominated in so many other categories, namely Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. Now that Leonardo DiCaprio has won an Oscar, will Adams take up the banner of most talented actor never to win?
Several other categories held their share of surprises as well. Underrated indie film “The Lobster” was nominated in the Best Original Screenplay category, as was “20th Century Women.” Michael Shannon received a nod for Best Supporting Actor for his role in “Nocturnal Animals,” edging out his co-star Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who won in the same category at the Golden Globes. “Finding Dory” was left out of the Best Animated Feature Film category, although Disney wasn’t entirely absent — “Moana” and “Zootopia” both earned nominations. The critically-derided “Suicide Squad” is now also an Oscar-nominated film, thanks to a nomination for makeup and hairstyling.
The 89th Academy Awards will take place Feb. 26.
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