By Emilio Frenk.
This morning, at 5:18 AM the nominations for the 89th Academy Award Nominations were announced. There were many surprises but overall what I think is more relevant is that the nominations were fairrer than in any other time in recent history.
Compared to other years that the nominations were announced at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, California, the nomination process was completely different and went through a live feed system that was seen in the website www.oscars.org.
Academy Award Winners like Actresses Brie Larson and Marcia Gay Harden, Jennifer Hudson Writer Dustin Lance Black and Nominees like Directors Guillermo del Toro and Jason Reitman, Actors Glenn Close, Gabourey Sidibe, Terrence Howard and Ken Watanabe. All of them started with sharing their experiences when they got nominated and then they kicked off announcing the categories.
Last but not least the nominations for Best Picture were announced by The President of The Academy Award of Motion Picture and Sciences Cheryl Boone Isaacs and Academy Award Nominee Demián Bichir.
As expected “La La Land” scored 14 nominations and tied with “Titanic” in 1997 and “All About Eve” in 1950 with the same amount as well.
Both "Arrival" and “Moonlight” did very well and scored 8, “Hacksaw Ridge”, “Manchester by the Sea" and "Lion" with a total of 6 including Best Picture. “Hell or High Water” which was the movie that started the Oscar race this past summer scored 4 and “Fences” scored the same number as well.
The biggest surprise was not seeing Tom Ford nominated for Best Director for “Nocturnal Animals” since he got nominated for the past Golden Globes and for The DGA Awards and Denis Villeneuve was not to be expected to be named in the list for Best Director Category and he did.
The announcement of Rodrigo Prieto´s nomination for Best Cinematography in Martin Scorsese´s "Silence" was the only nominee for what I consider a film that could have received more candidates to win.
Meryl Streep scored her 20th Nomination for “Florence Foster Jenkins” making her the actress with most nominations in Academy Award History.
Compared to the previous years that African American Actors and Directors were literally ignored and generated controversy. This was not the case and movies like “Moonlight”, “Fences” and “Hidden Figures” were not ignored and get their respective recognitions.
On the announcement of this morning´s nominations I do think it was very even and fair for the movies and the people who got nominated who delivered amazing performances in a first semester that started very weak but had an interesting close.
I am very happy that Writer/Director Damien Chazelle got his third nomination in history for “La La Land” since he was nominated previously for “Whiplash”. He could make history by being the youngest director in winning the Oscar for Best Director.
Before the Oscars I encourage you to stay tuned for other awards like the Screen Actors Guild Awards (SAG) , where they winners will be revealed this upcoming Sunday January 29th , The Directors Guild of America Awards (DGA) on February 4th, The British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) on February 12th, The Writers Guild of America Awards (WGA) on February 19th and the Film Independent Spirit Awards on February 25th.
The winners for the 89th Academy Award Nominations will be revealed on February 26th with host Jimmy Kimmel.
For More information of all the movies that got nominated go to www.oscars.org.
Congratulations to all the nominees and may the best one win.
I invite you to leave your comments at emilio.frenk@gmail.com or my twitter @FrenkEmilio.
