The Movie Chapter's Climax! 2017 Academy Awards Preview
(Image: Kevin Winter/Getty Images/The Hollywood Reporter)
The Academy Awards, also known as the Oscars, is an awards show that has become a "holy grail" for movies, celebrating the outstanding achievements for motion picture, its actors/actresses, its directors, and others. Its importance is just as grand as the Emmys for television, and often people would prioritize wins in the Oscars above any other award shows due to its high level of prestige, just like how race drivers competing in IndyCar would die to win in Indy 500 and how a soccer player would do the same to win Copa Libertadores.
The Oscars is an awards show that I initially had no interest checking, but now I have changed that mindset, especially when I said that I would add Oscars as one of the rounds in World Fandom Championship. However, on the topic of WFC, I felt I lost drive for that (spoiler alert, I haven't updated the standings) and maybe I did this stuff too much, feeling that I should instead fix the system out and perhaps undergo some rebranding, maybe doing it just like Top 50 Models on The Fashion Spot. I don't want to take too much time as I had to finish college by the middle of this year and I believe there's this moment that maybe WFC is a bit too much to do, especially with no wide public recognition.
And speaking of Oscars, certain names are of course expected in the race as the nominees were announced around 8 PM my time, particularly La La Land and Moonlight, two movies with outstanding awards season this year, winning awards after awards, Best Picture categories after Best Picture categories, and now here they are, battling for Oscar's Best Picture once again while having the most number of nominations. La La Land is en route to its Best Picture treble this season, having won Critics Choice and Golden Globes of said category earlier on, but with Moonlight also nominated for Best Picture and set a possible upset, despite having six nominations less than the former, we're definitely up for a climactic ride for the awards season, concluding the motion picture chapter this season with a long break to the climax of the television chapter that is the Emmys.
ENTERING THE STAGE
Ladies and Gentlemen, the dominating figure is finally here! Brace yourselves! (Image: Samantha Highfill - @samhighfill - on Twitter)
The nominations for the Oscars were announced on January 24, at 8 AM EST, which equals 8 PM in my place. Retweeting The Verge's tweet to its article, La La Land and Moonlight are two of this year's highlights, with 14 and 8 nominations respectively, and a very high chance of winning categories they are competing in. Arrival is also the other name to have eight awards, but with the two already-mentioned movies taking the highlight, it would take the Academy's votes to have Arrival's nominations a dark horse win, although somehow not possible.
Voting process for nominations didn't start until January 5, and closed on Friday, January 13. The nominees were announced on 24th of January, and the final voting for the final nominees was opened on February 13, and will be closed on Tuesday 21st.
The Best Picture category will be a competition between La La Land, Moonlight, and Fences, among other nominations. Nine critically-acclaimed movies which has decorated the awards season this year starting from Critics' Choice Awards and Golden Globes will fight for the victory in this category. Not to mention, Best Director category will hold the same importance as La La Land with high winning expectations will face Moonlight. Both Damien Chazelle and Barry Jenkins have directed their respective movies which allowed them to take home lots of awards, but this is where the climax draws.
Four actor nominations comprised of main roles and supporting roles will have its own set of rivalries. Best Actor will have La La Land's Ryan Gosling and Fences' Denzel Washington, with Best Actress fielding La La Land's Emma Stone, Florence Foster Jenkins's Meryl Streep, and Elle's Isabelle Huppert, who won Golden Globes earlier on. The Supporting roles will see the fates of whether Moonlight's Mahershala Ali and Fences' Viola Davis will definitely take home the coveted trophy in their respective categories.
The remaining categories will see how true La La Land's Oscar domination play out. The comedy musical movie will be expected to shine in Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Song, and Best Sound Editing, but will face rivalries with Moonlight in categories such as Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, and Best Original Score. One of the hit releases Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them appears in Best Production Design and Best Costume Design, which unfortunately being one field with La La Land. Another hits Doctor Strange and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story are nominated in Best Visual Effects, with the latter title also nominated for Best Sound Mixing. Suicide Squad sadly only had Best Makeup & Hairstyling nomination on its belt, which in turn snubs Margot Robbie from the actors race. Lastly, the Best Animated Feature will see whether Zootopia will take home the prize or either of the four other movies: Kubo and the Two Strings, Moana, My Life as a Zucchini, and The Red Turtle, will do it instead.
With the number of diverse selection of nominees, many, if not all, would believe that the Academy has learned a thing from last year's #OscarsSoWhite scandal created in 2015 by activist and BroadwayBlack.com managing editor April Reign, in which the Academy failed to nominate actors and filmmakers of color, leading to the show's boycott and later a restructuring in the Academy panel. Nominee Viola Davis answered a question after winning her SAG Award whether the more diverse roster is due to be the direct response, which she replied "they’re not there because of the color of their skin. They put in the work." Despite this year is a refreshing change to the competing roster, Reign, via The Verge (link already supplied), said that "there's still a lot of work to be done."
Complete list of nominees can be found here.
THE UPSETTING SNUBS AND SURPRISES
Poor Amy Adams... The Academy slipped on its forking buns at her nomination and gave it to Meryl Streep instead, just like Liverpool's Steven Gerrard when playing against Chelsea. (Image: Paramount Pictures/Variety)
With a handful of stunning performers comes upsetting snubs. Despite grabbing attention in previous award galas, the Academy apparently has another plan which killed the expectations of many.
On the titles side, Deadpool is one of the names being victim to the snubbing party, but it was unexpected as superhero movies are rarely represented and perhaps looked down upon the panel, with Suicide Squad and Doctor Strange being the only movies in the category in question represented, and only for the miscellaneous categories. Finding Dory isn't even nominated in the Best Animated Feature as well, leaving a path to other Disney-produced movies Moana and reigning champion Zootopia.
The snubbed actors also included Arrival's Amy Adams, whose snub was a subject of memes, and following a gaffe by the Academy as well, which also saw Sully's Tom Hanks to be snubbed as well. The Amy Adams story saw her being snubbed over Meryl Streep, which led me to whether I had to imagine if the Academy was playing Steven Gerrard slip all along, while for Tom Hanks, he hasn't been nominated for the past 16 years since Cast Away. Other notable snubs also include Annette Bening of 20th Century Women, Hugh Grant for Florence Foster Jenkins, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson for Nocturnal Animals.
Granted, their fate is still better compared to these: Arrival, Manchester By The Sea, and Silence, whose original scores were disqualified from this year's race. As explained within Rule 15 II E of the Academy’s rules and eligibility guidelines (available here), a score "shall not be eligible if it has been diluted by the use of pre-existing music, or it has been diminished in impact by the predominant use of songs or any music not composed specifically for the film by the submitting composer." A Paramount source on the behalf of Arrival said original compositions made by Johann Johannsson constituted 86 percent of the film’s soundtrack, while pre-existing classical music in MBTS diminshed composer Lesley Barber's run, although it was revealed that the director has decided early on to use certain pieces of music from the classical repertoire as part of the music blend. Kim Allen Kluge and Kathryn Kluge's compositions for Silence were also written off to this race, though the parameter for how an original composition deemed "substantial" to be eligible is unclear.
However, surprises also abound in this year's race, with three surprises took place. Loving's Ruth Negga earned her the Best Actress category slot, for her nuanced performance in the movie, set to be in the race against Emma Stone and Meryl Streep. Michael Shannon of Nocturnal Animals competes in the Best Supporting Actor category while subbing for the snubbed Aaron Taylor-Johnson, despite having to face a strong contender in the form of Moonlight's Mahershala Ali, and Mel Gibson's comeback has been materialized as the Best Director contender for his Hacksaw Ridge directing.
HOW WILL EVERYTHING BE PLAYED OUT?
Tying past movies Titanic and All About Eve with 14 nominations, and with plenty of wins in Critics' Choice Awards and Golden Globes, La La Land's victory will not only be as expected as the Mercedes team in Formula 1, but also become a dominant awards season win throughout the season in the history. The Comedy-Musical movie directed by Damien Chazelle was nothing until it won Critics' Choice, with continued domination throughout succeeding galas. Now that they made it here, the only thing that would divide them from dominating the gala and subsequently the movie chapter of this Awards Season: Moonlight.
Moonlight itself is a movie about the hard road of Chiron's (played by multiple actors) life from his youth to an adult struggling to grow up in a rough neighborhood of Miami in a story of self-discovery and connection. Having six nominations less than its musical rival, it has won a Golden Globes in the Best Motion Picture category, and winning Best Picture in Oscars won't be this more prestigious. With Mahershala Ali's critically-acclaimed role of Juan, a crack dealer who also became a father figure to Chiron, a Best Supporting Actor win could be a sure-fire, but winning Best Picture will be anything but easy.
Shall Arrival win Best Picture over both La La Land and Moonlight, the movie could settle as a dark horse win, something even Toyota Gazoo Racing in last year's 24 Hours of Le Mans would dream of until its last-minute upset denied its victory. Before Oscars, it won Best Picture for Drama in Critics' Choice, but didn't seem to fight back in Golden Globes and SAG. Same sentiment could be said for the recent SAG winner for Outstanding Cast Ensemble, Hidden Figures, as well.
Personally, I always thought La La Land would take Best Picture easily given at how its repeat wins in Best Picture category of CCAs and Golden Globes would help, but Moonlight has started to be its worthy rival, and now with both running as Best Picture competitors, the race can't be this more exciting!
Ladies and gentlemen, the conclusion of the motion picture arc of this year's awards season is finally here. Either a treble or an upsetting surprise will be scored during the course of the Oscars, this shall be another race to remember, and hopefully you can support these award-worthy movies even further! Good luck, nominees!
The Oscars will begin on February 26, 5:30 pm PT, taking place at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California, with Jimmy Kimmel as the host.
~[R]