La La Land, Diversity and Aussie Films Shine In This Year's Oscar Nominations

The musical everyone has been talking about, the most diverse acting lineup ever, and a huge haul for Australian movies: yes, the 89th Oscar nominations have been revealed. It's the time of year when film almost becomes a sport. Who will win? Who'll miss out? What do historical stats indicate? Does Meryl Streep get nominated just for waking up in the morning? What does Amy Adams have to do to get some attention? The questions go on.

Surprising absolutely no one — particularly after its hefty Golden Globes showing — La La Land is the big favourite with a record-equalling 14 nominations, including for Best Picture, Best Director (Damien Chazelle), Best Actress (Emma Stone) and Best Actor (Ryan Gosling). The last time a movie managed that, it was that little romantic boat tragedy known as Titanic, with 1950 drama All About Eve the only other effort to achieve the feat. Like terrible Celine Dion songs, the film industry's love of watching two very attractive and talented actors sing and dance will (deservedly, in our opinion) go on.

The hit musical will compete for the Academy Awards' top prize against a host of other multiple nominees. Also showered in recognition: Arrival and Moonlight (eight nods each), Manchester by the Sea (six nods, including Best Actor frontrunner Casey Affleck), Fences and Hell or High Water (four nods each), and Hidden Figures (three nods).

Thinking local, only a year after Mad Max: Fury Road won big, Aussies have come out in force once again. For the first time ever, two Australian films are in the running for Best Picture, with Mel Gibson's war flick Hacksaw Ridge and heartwrenching true tale Lion also scoring six nominations apiece. The former also picked up recognition for Best Director (Gibson) and Best Actor (Andrew Garfield), while the latter gave Nicole Kidman her fourth nomination (for Best Supporting Actress), and anointed Dev Patel for best Aussie accent (okay, Best Supporting Actor, but seriously, his Australian twang is spot-on). And then there's Tanna which, released here in 2015, was shot entirely in Vanuatu, and earned Australia its first-ever Best Foreign-Language Film nomination.

The other big story is an departure of #OscarsSoWhite, with the acting field making history. After previous year's awards have been called out for a lack of diversity amongst nominees, for the first time, every single acting category features a person of colour, including Fences' Denzel Washington and Viola Davis, Loving's Ruth Negga, Moonlight's Mahershala Ali and Naomie Harris, Hidden Figures' Octavia Spencer, and Lion's aforementioned Patel. Elsewhere, Barry Jenkins is up for Best Director for Moonlight, while the film's editor, Joi McMillon, became the first black woman nominated in that category. About time.

The 89th Academy Awards will take place on February 27 Australian time, and will be hosted by Jimmy Kimmel. Here's the full list of nominations.

OSCAR NOMINEES 2017

BEST MOTION PICTURE

• Arrival
• Fences
• Hacksaw Ridge
• Hell Or High Water
• Hidden Figures
• Lion
• La La Land
• Manchester By The Sea
• Moonlight

BEST DIRECTOR

• Damien Chazelle, La La Land
• Barry Jenkins, Moonlight
• Kenneth Lonergan, Manchester By The Sea
• Denis Villeneuve, Arrival
• Mel Gibson, Hacksaw Ridge

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

• Isabelle Huppert, Elle
• Ruth Negga, Loving
• Natalie Portman, Jackie
• Emma Stone, La La Land
• Meryl Streep, Florence Foster Jenkins

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

• Casey Affleck, Manchester By The Sea
• Denzel Washington, Fences
• Ryan Gosling, La La Land
• Andrew Garfield, Hacksaw Ridge
• Viggo Mortensen, Captain Fantastic

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

• Viola Davis, Fences
• Michelle Williams, Manchester By the Sea
• Naomie Harris, Moonlight
• Nicole Kidman, Lion
• Octavia Spencer, Hidden Figures

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

• Mahershala Ali, Moonlight
• Jeff Bridges, Hell Or High Water
• Dev Patel, Lion
• Lucas Hedges, Manchester By The Sea
• Michael Shannon, Nocturnal Animals

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM OF THE YEAR

• Kubo and the Two Strings, Travis Knight and Arianne Sutner
• Moana, John Musker, Ron Clements and Osnat Shurer
• My Life as a Zucchini, Claude Barras and Max Karli
• The Red Turtle, Michael Dudok de Wit and Toshio Suzuki
• Zootopia, Byron Howard, Rich Moore and Clark Spencer

ACHIEVEMENT IN CINEMATOGRAPHY

• Arrival, Bradford Young
• La La Land, Linus Sandgren
• Lion, Greig Fraser
• Moonlight, James Laxton
• Silence, Rodrigo Prieto

ACHIEVEMENT IN COSTUME DESIGN

• Allied, Joanna Johnston
• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Colleen Atwood
• Florence Foster Jenkins, Consolata Boyle
• Jackie, Madeline Fontaine
• La La Land, Mary Zophres

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

• Fire at Sea, Gianfranco Rosi and Donatella Palermo
• I Am Not Your Negro, Raoul Peck, Rémi Grellety and Hébert Peck
• Life, Animated, Roger Ross Williams and Julie Goldman
• J.: Made in America, Ezra Edelman and Caroline Waterlow
• 13th Ava, DuVernay, Spencer Averick and Howard Barish

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT

• Extremis, Dan Krauss
• 1 Miles, Daphne Matziaraki
• Joe's Violin, Kahane Cooperman and Raphaela Neihausen
• Watani: My Homeland, Marcel Mettelsiefen and Stephen Ellis
• The White Helmets, Orlando von Einsiedel and Joanna Natasegara

ACHIEVEMENT IN FILM EDITING

• Arrival, Joe Walker
• Hacksaw Ridge, John Gilbert
• Hell or High Water, Jake Roberts
• La La Land, Tom Cross
• Moonlight, Nat Sanders and Joi McMillon

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM OF THE YEAR

• Land of Mine, Denmark
• A Man Called Ove, Sweden
• The Salesman, Iran
• Tanna, Australia
• Toni Erdmann, Germany

ACHIEVEMENT IN MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING

• A Man Called Ove, Eva von Bahr and Love Larson
• Star Trek Beyond, Joel Harlow and Richard Alonzo
• Suicide Squad, Alessandro Bertolazzi, Giorgio Gregorini and Christopher Nelson

ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC WRITTEN FOR MOTION PICTURES (ORIGINAL SCORE)

• Jackie, Mica Levi
• La La Land, Justin Hurwitz
• Lion, Dustin O'Halloran and Hauschka
• Moonlight, Nicholas Britell
• Passengers, Thomas Newman

ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC WRITTEN FOR MOTION PICTURES (ORIGINAL SONG)

• 'Audition (The Fools Who Dream)' from La La Land
; Music by Justin Hurwitz; Lyric by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul
• 'Can't Stop The Feeling' from Trolls; 
Music and Lyric by Justin Timberlake, Max Martin and Karl Johan Schuster
• 'City Of Stars' from La La Land; 
Music by Justin Hurwitz; Lyric by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul
• 'The Empty Chair' from Jim: The James Foley Story; 
Music and Lyric by J. Ralph and Sting
• 'How Far I'll Go' from Moana; 
Music and Lyric by Lin-Manuel Miranda

ACHIEVEMENT IN PRODUCTION DESIGN

• Arrival; Production Design: Patrice Vermette; Set Decoration: Paul Hotte
• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them; Production Design: Stuart Craig; Set Decoration: Anna Pinnock
• Hail, Caesar!; Production Design: Jess Gonchor; Set Decoration: Nancy Haigh
• La La Land; Production Design: David Wasco; Set Decoration: Sandy Reynolds-Wasco
• Passengers; Production Design: Guy Hendrix Dyas; Set Decoration: Gene Serdena

BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM

• Blind Vaysha, Theodore Ushev
• Borrowed Time, Andrew Coats and Lou Hamou-Lhadj
• Pear Cider and Cigarettes, Robert Valley and Cara Speller
• Pearl, Patrick Osborne
• Piper, Alan Barillaro and Marc Sondheimer

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM

• Ennemis Intérieurs, Sélim Azzazi
• La Femme et le TGV, Timo von Gunten and Giacun Caduff
• Silent Nights, Aske Bang and Kim Magnusson
• Sing, Kristof Deák and Anna Udvardy
• Timecode, Juanjo Giménez

ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND EDITING

• Arrival, Sylvain Bellemare
• Deepwater Horizon, Wylie Stateman and Renée Tondelli
• Hacksaw Ridge, Robert Mackenzie and Andy Wright
• La La Land, Ai-Ling Lee and Mildred Iatrou Morgan
• Sully, Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman

ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND MIXING

• Arrival, Bernard Gariépy Strobl and Claude La Haye
• Hacksaw Ridge, Kevin O'Connell, Andy Wright, Robert Mackenzie and Peter Grace
• La La Land, Andy Nelson, Ai-Ling Lee and Steve A. Morrow
• Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, David Parker, Christopher Scarabosio and Stuart Wilson
• 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers, Jeffrey J. Haboush and Mac Ruth

ACHIEVEMENT IN VISUAL EFFECTS

• Deepwater Horizon, Craig Hammack, Jason Snell, Jason Billington and Burt Dalton
• Doctor Strange, Stephane Ceretti, Richard Bluff, Vincent Cirelli and Paul Corbould
• The Jungle Book, Robert Legato, Adam Valdez, Andrew R. Jones and Dan Lemmon
• Kubo and the Two Strings, Steve Emerson, Oliver Jones, Brian McLean and Brad Schiff
• Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, John Knoll, Mohen Leo, Hal Hickel and Neil Corbould

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

• Arrival, Screenplay by Eric Heisserer
• Fences, Screenplay by August Wilson
• Hidden Figures, Screenplay by Allison Schroeder and Theodore Melfi
• Lion, Screenplay by Luke Davies
• Moonlight, Screenplay by Barry Jenkins; Story by Tarell Alvin McCraney

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

• Hell or High Water, Written by Taylor Sheridan
• La La Land, Written by Damien Chazelle
• The Lobster, Written by Yorgos Lanthimos, Efthimis Filippou
• Manchester by the Sea, Written by Kenneth Lonergan
• 20th Century Women, Written by Mike Mills