The candy-colored love letter to musicals La La Land landed a record-tying 14 Academy Award nominations on Tuesday, while a notably more diverse field of nominees brushed off two straight years of “OscarsSoWhite” backlash.
La La Land matched Titanic and All About Eve for most nominations ever, earning nods for best picture, stars Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling, its jazz-infused songs and its 32-year-old writer-director, Damien Chazelle.
“I’m in Beijing right now. This only adds to the disorientation,” Chazelle said by phone Tuesday. “All that I have in my head is ‘thank you’ a million times over.”
In contrast to the last two years of all-white acting nominees, seven actors of color were nominated out of the 20 actors. A record six black actors were nominated (Fences stars Denzel Washington and Viola Davis, Mahershala Ali and Naomie Harris of Moonlight, Ruth Negga of Loving and Octavia Spencer of Hidden Figures), as was Dev Patel, the British-Indian star of Lion.
A trio of acclaimed films led the overhaul, foremost among them Barry Jenkins’ luminous coming-of-age portrait Moonlight. Its eight nominations, including best picture, tied for the second most nods. Denzel Washington’s fiery August Wilson adaptation Fences and Theodore Melfi’s crowd-pleasing African American mathematician drama, Hidden Figures, were also showered with nominations, including best picture.
Jenkins, who was nominated for directing and adapted screenplay, said the nominations for Moonlight and other films showed that people were eager to put themselves in the shoes of others.
“I love the American film industry and to see it this year, I feel, really reflect the world that we all live and work in, it gives me hope,” Jenkins said by phone from Amsterdam. “It heartens me. There’s a lot of work being done to make this year not be an anomaly.”
Nine films out of a possible 10 were nominated for best picture. The others were: Denis Villeneuve’s cerebral alien thriller Arrival, Kenneth Lonergan’s New England family drama Manchester by the Sea,” the West Texas heist thriller Hell or High Water, Lion, and Mel Gibson’s World War II drama Hacksaw Ridge.
The biggest surprise of the morning was the strong boost of support for Gibson, who had long been shunned in Hollywood since an anti-Semitic tirade while being arrested for drunk driving in 2006 and a 2011 conviction for domestic violence. Along with the best picture nod, Gibson scored an unexpected best director nomination. Gibson, whose ninth child was born Friday, said in a statement that nothing was more exciting than hearing the nominations read while holding my newborn son.”
Andrew Garfield, who was nominated for best actor for his performance in Hacksaw Ridge, said Gibson deserved the moment.
“I think finally people are remembering who Mel actually is, not what the tabloids (said),” said Garfield by phone. “I’m so, so proud of him.”
Arrival tied Moonlight for the second-most nominations, yet its five-time nominated star, Amy Adams, was left out of the competitive best actress category.
Meryl Streep, whom President Donald Trump recently derided as “overrated,” landed her 20th nomination. Her performance in Florence Foster Jenkins was among the best actress nominees that included Stone, Natalie Portman (Jackie), Ruth Negga (Loving) and Isabelle Huppert (Elle). Also left out was Annette Bening for 20th Century Women.
Best actor favorites Washington, Gosling and Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea) were joined by Garfield and Viggo Mortensen (Captain Fantastic). Along with Ali and Patel, the best supporting actor nominees are Lucas Hedges (Manchester by the Sea), Michael Shannon (Nocturnal Animals) and Jeff Bridges (Hell or High Water).
Viola Davis, the supporting actress front-runner for Fences, notched the expected nomination. Also up for the category are Harris, Spencer, Nicole Kidman (Lion) and Michelle Williams (Manchester by the Sea).
The nominations were a test for the revamped film academy. It’s the first set of nominees since academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs ushered in new membership rules and added 683 new members as a way to diversify a predominantly white, male and elderly group, which now numbers 6,687.