Oscars: “La La Land” Ties Record For Most Ever Nominations; Two Aussie Films Up For Best Pic

Prepare for the backlash to the backlash to the backlash to begin.

La La Land, which has gone from being beloved festival favourite to furious ‘hot take’ generator to box office hit to overrated awards season juggernaut, earned 14 Oscar nominations last night, tying the record for most ever nods held by Titanic and All About Eve.

(For the record: We liked it fine.)

Though a Best Picture win seems assured, it faces competition from Manchester by the Sea (distributed by Amazon in the U.S., making it the first such nod for a streaming service) and Moonlight. (I’ve only published a review of Moonlight so far, but these are indeed both five-star flicks.)

They’ll face off against two Australian films—Lion and Hacksaw Ridge—which is a first for the local film industry. (A third Aussie film—Tanna—is in the running for Foreign Language Film.)

The remaining Best Picture rivals include Arrival, Fences, Hell or High Water and Hidden Figures.

There aren’t too many surprises to be found in this year’s list of nominees. Many of the expected contenders got a nod, except for maybe Arrival’s Amy Adams, the one glaring omission from its haul of eight nods. Maybe it was best not to get the former five-time nominee’s hopes up, given that Emma Stone seems set to win on the back of La La Land’s expected sweep.

The internet got ahead of itself when Deadpool looked like an increasingly likely Best Picture player, but alas, the day in which a movie whose hero is described as resembling “a testicle with teeth” getting such an honour seems further away than ever.

The Academy at least avoided another #OscarsSoWhite disaster (following two consecutive years in which all 20 of the acting nominees were, well, white). There were seven people of colour among this batch of acting nominees. On top of that, four of the nine Best Picture contenders centered on people of colour too. Plus, Arrival’s Bradford Young became the first black American to be nominated for Best Cinematography, and only the second black person to be nominated in the category, period.

However, the Academy also saw fit to nominate Mel Gibson for Best Director, so don’t expect #OscarsSoWoke to start trending anytime soon.

To that end, Fresh Off The Boat star Constance Wu and many others are also disappointed in the nod for Casey Affleck, who seems poised to take out Best Actor for Manchester by the Sea, given his own sexual harassment lawsuits.

Men who sexually harass women 4 OSCAR! Bc good acting performance matters more than humanity,human integrity!Bc poor kid rly needs the help!

— Constance Wu (@ConstanceWu) January 24, 2017

By the way, Meryl Streep scored her twentieth career nomination for Florence Foster Jenkins. When asked for a comment, her publicist provided outlets the following GIF direct from Ms Streep herself.

Best Picture

Arrival

Fences

Hacksaw Ridge

Hell or High Water

Hidden Figures

La La Land

Lion

Manchester by the Sea

Moonlight

Best Director

Denis Villeneuve, Arrival

Mel Gibson, Hacksaw Ridge

Damien Chazelle, La La Land

Kenneth Lonergan, Manchester by the Sea

Barry Jenkins, Moonlight

Best Actress in a Leading Role

Isabelle Huppert, Elle

Ruth Negga, Loving

Natalie Portman, Jackie

Emma Stone, La La Land

Meryl Streep, Florence Foster Jenkins

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Viola Davis, Fences

Naomie Harris, Moonlight

Nicole Kidman, Lion

Octavia Spencer, Hidden Figures

Michelle Williams, Manchester by the Sea

Best Actor in a Leading Role

Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea

Andrew Garfield, Hacksaw Ridge

Ryan Gosling, La La Land

Viggo Mortensen, Captain Fantastic

Denzel Washington, Fences

Best Actor in a Supporting Role

Mahershala Ali, Moonlight

Jeff Bridges, Hell or High Water

Lucas Hedges, Manchester by the Sea

Dev Patel, Lion

Michael Shannon, Nocturnal Animals

You can check out the full list of nominees here.

The 89th Academy Awards, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, will take place February 27 (AEST).

Photo: Summit