FOX’s Ashley Dvorkin & ‘Rotten Tomatoes’ Editor-in-Chief Matt Atchity breakdown all the top nominations in each category and discuss if we’ll see anyone mentioning the “Oscar’s So White” controversy that sparked after last year’s show:
(La La Land) “Here’s to the one’s who dream.”
Here’s to those who dream… it’s official, the front-runner for this year’s Academy Awards is ‘La La Land’ with a record tying 14 total, joining ‘Titanic’ and ‘All About Eve’ for the most nominations ever.
Also included in that total are nods for leads Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling and one in the coveted category of ‘Best Picture’:
(Moonlight) “At some point, you’ve got to decide for yourself who you want to be. Can’t let nobody make that decision for you.”
In second place are fellow ‘Best Picture’ nominees ‘Moonlight’ and ‘Arrival’ each with eight.
(Arrival) “You’re a janitor. So what? You can do that anywhere.”
Also up for the ultimate ‘Best Picture’ prize, the emotional drama ‘Manchester by the Sea’, the inspirational true story ‘Hidden Figures’, the based on real life drama ‘Lion’, the World War II epic ‘Hacksaw Ridge’, the modern day Western ‘Hell or High Water’ and the Broadway-to-film adaptation ‘Fences’.
Diversity amongst nominees is still a big part of the conversation after the “Oscars So White” controversy that has surrounded the show for the past two years:
(Matt Atchity) “Still a story in that, maybe they fixed it, at least this year. We’ve got six black nominees this year. Dev Patel also makes it in for ‘Best Supporting Actor’. So a lot of actors of color this year, so maybe this year there’s not an ‘Oscars So White’ controversy.”
In terms of the top individual honors, joining Gosling in the ‘Best Actor’ category are Denzel Washington for ‘Fences’, ‘Manchester by the Sea’s’ Casey Affleck, ‘Hacksaw Ridge’ lead Andrew Garfield and in somewhat of a surprise, ‘Captain Fantastic’s’ Viggo Mortensen.
Up for ‘Best Actress’ with Emma Stone are Isabelle Huppert for ‘Elle’, Ruth Negga for her role in ‘Loving’, Natalie Portman as ‘Jackie’, and Meryl Streep adds to her own 20th record nomination for ‘Florence Foster Jenkins’.
And this is one category that had a surprise snub:
(Matt Atchity) “Somewhat surprising to see Annette Bening not get nominated for ‘Best Actor’ for ’20th Century Women’, but that’s a crowded field this year.”
Now the big campaigning begins as the those looking to add Oscar-winner to their resume countdown to Hollywood’s biggest night, the 89th Academy Awards Feb.26.
