The 2017 Academy Award: Full List of ALL the Nominations
- nightfilmreviews
- Jan 25, 2017
- 7 min read
Another year, another Oscar ceremony. This year, the awards are being hosted none other than Jimmy Kimmel, and while Kimmel is going to be the talk of the town until the awards ceremony actually airs, the films that win on February 26th 2017, will surely steal Kimmel’s spotlight.
As always, the Academy seems to always get it right, wrong, and a couple in-between choices that I am always puzzled about. Most notably, I am EXTREMELY upset with The Academy and ONE SPECIFIC snub that could possibly be one of their worst snubs…in history! No, I am not taking this lightly, not at all.
After the HUGE amount of controversy from last year’s #Oscarssowhite, this year, The Academy made sure diversity was as much apart of the broadcast and ballot, as the films themselves. Setting an exhubent amount of historical art records, The Academy made some pretty wise choices in terms of not only films, but the talent that follows these films to cinematic history. So, with that said, here is a look at who will and what will be competing on Hollywood’s golden night.
The Nominees are:
Best Picture
Arrival Fences Hacksaw Ridge Hell or High Water Hidden Figures La La Land Lion Manchester by the Sea Moonlight
Surprises/Snubs: Okay, while many wished (including myself) and thought that the highest grossing R-Rated film of all-time, and one of the most delightful guilty pleasures of the year was going to get nominated, fellow Canadian Ryan Reynold’s Deadpool didn’t make the cut. I am sure it was close though! Silence was silenced in this category (and many others), despite early speculation that it was going to rule the Awards season considering Scorsese’s thirty year epic was his suppose to be his crowning achievement. Another big surprise is the absence of Pablo Larrín’s amazingly gorgeous biopic Jackie, which absolutely deserves a spot on this list WELL before Lion, Hidden Figures and Fences.
Best Director
Denis Villeneuve, Arrival *CANADIAN* Mel Gibson, Hacksaw Ridge Damien Chazelle, La La Land Kenneth Lonergan, Manchester by the Sea Barry Jenkins, Moonlight
HAPPY Surprise: The biggest surprise in this category is [finally] the inclusion of Canada’s most talented director to date (maybe ever?) Denis Villeneuve. Villenueve’s work is always marvelled, analyzed and talked about, its should not have came as a surprise his best film to date would be a Best Picture nominated film and give him his first directing nomination of his very promising career.
Best Original Screenplay
Hell or High Water La La Land The Lobster Manchester by the Sea 20th Century Women
Surprise: I could have sworn Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Lobster was released in 2015, not that we are really complaining. Lanthimos’ script is easily one of the most inventive and genuinely original scripts of the last twenty years in cinema. Add the inclusion of Mike Mill’s 20th Century Women, and this is one very fresh and quirky category, although we all know who is going to take this one come Oscar night.
Best Adapted Screenplay
Arrival Fences Hidden Figures Lion Moonlight
*No real surprises here. We just find it a shame that two of the best film and two of the best scripts of 2016 have to challenge each other for Oscar gold. At the end of the day, the winner is well deserving and will be applauded just as loud.*
Best Actor
Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea Andrew Garfield, Hacksaw Ridge Ryan Gosling, La La Land *CANADIAN* Viggo Mortensen, Captain Fantastic Denzel Washington, Fences
Surprise: Seeing Garfield on this list for Gibson’s super skeptical Hacksaw Ridge as opposed to Scorsese’s religious epic Silence that was once predicted to sweep the nominations in 2017.
Best Actress
Isabelle Huppert, Elle Ruth Negga, Loving Natalie Portman, Jackie Emma Stone, La La Land Meryl Streep, Florence Foster Jenkins
SNUB SNUB SNUB: THE BIGGEST SNUB IN OSCAR HISTORY is the very careless choice to leave Amy Adams out of the Oscar race for her role as Dr. Louise Banks in the BEST FILM of 2016! Adams, whose performance carries the very essence of the film; its dialogue, visuals and most importantly, all the characters surrounding her, makes this choice, one of the saddest days of my cinematic life. Amy Adams has now surpassed Leonardo DiCaprio for acting nominations without winning, making her the new and sadly overlooked Leo. If you don’t believe me, just stay tuned. An editorial on this travesty will be featured soon.
Best Supporting Actor
Mahershala Ali, Moonlight Jeff Bridges, Hell or High Water Lucas Hedges, Manchester by the Sea Dev Patel, Lion Michael Shannon, Nocturnal Animals
Snub: Where the heck is Ben Foster in this category? Peter Sarsgaard? Foster, who is easily one of the most underrated actors in Hollywood today, gives a no holds-barred, balls to the wall performance as Tanner Howard, a big brother with small ambition and a strong code of brotherhood fuels his desire to help his little brother Toby Howard (Chris Pine) steal some money from banks to rectify whats their’s. As for Peter Sarsgaard, I was surprised the prestigious actor was getting no buzz or talk of acting recognition as his very convincing and utterly uncanny resemblance and performance to the late Bobby Kennedy. Its very funny, sad and shocking to think that, despite some incredible films (Jarhead, Blue Jasmine and of course An Education) the actor has YET to secure his very first Oscar nomination.
Best Supporting Actress
Viola Davis, Fences
Naomie Harris, Moonlight
Nicole Kidman, Lion
Octavia Spencer, Hidden Figures
Michelle Williams, Manchester by the Sea
Snub: Not only was Janelle Monáe in Disney’s crowd pleasing and critical darling Hidden Figures, but Monáe surprised us all and really exercised her acting chops and showed us what she’s got in Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight. Offering tense scenes of maternity, being a hard woman with some class or a real life inspiration to its lead protagonist, Monáe was one name I was anxiously waiting to hear this morning.
Best Cinematography
Arrival La La Land Lion Moonlight Silence
Surprise: Silence got on the board once this year with their only nomination within The Academy for cinematography. At the same time, it is almost disheartening knowing that Silence stole the spot that was saved tremendously for Hell or High Water’s Giles Nuttgens.
Best Original Score
Jackie La La Land Lion Moonlight Passengers
Surprise: No one thought Passengers would come away with two Oscar nominations the day before the actual announcement. Yet, Passengers, a live-action rendering of Pixar’s beloved Wall-E has two chances for gold, and one of them is taking advantage of Arrival’s invalid film score by genius composer Jóhann Jóhannsson which was deemed ineligible this year. As for Thomas Newman, if we are REALLY talking about invidiuals who have been nominated numerous times without winning, Newman currently sits at fourteen nominations, and zero wins, holding the Oscar record. Ouch!
Best Film Editing
Arrival Hacksaw Ridge Hell or High Water La La Land Moonlight
Best Foreign Language Film
Land of Mine A Man Called Ove The Salesman Tanna Toni Erdmann
Surprise: Paolo Larraín was a hard working filmmaker in 2016, making not only one stellar film, but two! Neruda is poetic, fascinating in a very cinematic way yet, audiences couldn’t handle an international release that is not only avant-garde in its storytelling techniques, but also, very very audacious. It absolutely needed a nod in my opinion.
Snub: After horrendous films focused around comedy and the absurdities of flying, Pedro Almodóvar made his return to the female narrative with Julieta. Almodóvar has made a knack and career out of showcases some of the strongest female characters, not only in Spain, but in the world. Julieta was a true return to form in one of his strongest works to date, which threatened The Academy, who probably didn’t want to drown themselves in female favouritism or controversy, especially when the world was watching then from last year.
Best Animated Feature
Kubo and the Two Strings Moana My Life as a Zucchini The Red Turtle Zootopia
Surprise: Pixar is no where is sight. Despite Finding Dory for being an excellent film in 2016 and gaining the title as 2016 highest grossing in the domestic market, the film was still unable to snatch a nomination by The Academy. If there is one thing we know about The Academy, we know that making money is never a requirement, and if you don’t believe me, look at back 2009, when The Hurt Locker beat out the highest grossing movie of all-time, Avatar.
Best Production Design
Arrival Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Hail, Caesar! La La Land Passengers
Best Visual Effects
Deepwater Horizon Doctor Strange The Jungle Book Kubo and the Two Strings Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Snub: Not that it will be spoken about for too long, but the fact that Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them isn’t included in this list just makes us sad.
Best Original Song
“Audition (The Fools Who Dream),” La La Land “Can’t Stop the Feeling,” Trolls “City of Stars,” La La Land “The Empty Chair,” Jim: The James Foley Story “How Far I’ll Go,” Moana
Surprise: Many weren’t happy when La La Land snatched two spots on Original Song category’s list, especially since the later, City of Stars is perhaps one of the weakest songs in the film, although it does capture the motives of all its characters best. Another big surprise this year was the highly applauded and critical darling Sing Street didn’t get love in this category, when many thought it would be a certain lock.
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
A Man Called Ove Star Trek Beyond Suicide Squad
Surprise: When is The Academy going to start making this highly important and underrated category have five entries like so many others?
Best Costume Design
Allied Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Florence Foster Jenkins Jackie La La Land
Best Sound Editing
Arrival Deepwater Horizon Hacksaw Ridge La La Land Sully
Best Sound Mixing
Arrival Hacksaw Ridge La La Land Rogue One: A Star Wars Story 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi
Best Live Action Short
Ennemis Intérieurs La Femme et le TGV Silent Nights Sing Timecode
Best Animated Short
Blind Vaysha Borrowed Time Pear Cider and Cigarettes Pearl Piper
Best Documentary Feature
Fire at Sea I Am Not Your Negro Life Animated O.J.: Made in America 13th
Best Documentary Short
Extremis 4.1 Miles Joe’s Violin Watani: My Homeland The White Helmets
So there you have it people. February 27th is quickly approaching, and while The Academy seemed to get much of it right this year [minus Adams], the broadcast should be one thats both entertaining, fun and exciting. Just remember, The Academy ALWAYS includes ONE BIG surprise in its broadcast each and every year. And since so many are already pegging La La Land to sweep, keep your eyes peeled for one big surprise in one of the acting categories. I already have my precondition made, so lets see, after seeing all the films on this list, if you’ve got me beat this year. We’ll have our predictions and commentaries just before showtime. Out of ALL the films nominated this year, I have not seen 15, and you beat that all that will change come Oscar night.
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