Ellis Nassour On The 2017 Academy Awards Nominations

They’re off and running! Awards season is officially underway. The Oscars are coming! The Oscars are coming!

The Golden Globes have spoken, but now it’s time for golden Oscar to add his stamp of approval. Weekend after weekend, acclaimed films have hit theatres, but throughout the year several excellent films made big splashes at cineplex box offices. A couple of them, especially “Hell or High Water,” haven’t been forgotten by the nominators.
The recent blockbusters that opened in New York and Los Angeles in order to qualify for nods are, as they say, opening or soon-to-open wide. Now with the boost of a nomination, acclaimed indies and foreign films given a nod will hit the art house circuit.
If last year’s nominations lacked diversity, this year’s line-up of out-of-the-norm releases gave diversity a new definition. Recognition couldn’t be avoided. But to avoid brouhaha, the Academy, led by president Cheryl Boone Isaacs, initiated numerous changes in the make-up of the committees and membership.
The 89th Academy Awards, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, air Sunday, February 26 in a three-and-a-half hour telecast on ABC beginning at 8:30 p.m. Eastern. Prior to the awards, there’ll be lots of glitz and glamour with the red carpet arrivals.
Three-time Oscar winner Meryl Streep continued to break records with her 20th nomination (Best Actress, Supporting Actress). It was not the year for Ben Affleck, but younger brother Casey has risen to the top of the pack with his extraordinary performance in Kenneth Lonergan’s “Manchester by the Sea,” and now makes the Oscar history books.
Often, it’s puzzling how nominators nominate. For instance, when she is billed as a co-star in bold lettering and carries at least, if not more, of the screen adaptation of August Wilson’s Tony and Drama Desk-winning “Fences,” starring the leads of the 2010 Broadway revival, Tony-nominated Denzel Washington and Viola Divas, how does two-time nominee (“Doubt,” “The Help”) Davis get regulated to the Supporting Actress category? And wasn’t Jeff Bridges an equal star with Ben Foster and Chris Pine in “Hell or High Water?”
The nominations were announced with winners and nominees, including Glenn Close, Marcia Gay Harden, Terrence Howard, Jennifer Hudson, Brie Larson, and Ken Wantanabe, making recollections of their big moment. Leading the pack was “La La Land,” which raked in 14 nominations.
Nomination highlights:
Best picture
Arrival
Fences
Hackshaw Ridge
Hell or High Water
Hidden Figures
La La Land
Lion
Manchester by the Sea
Moonlight
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
Actress in a leading role
Isabelle Huppert, Elle
Ruth Negga, Loving
Natalie Portman, Jackie
Emma Stone, La La Land
Meryl Streep, Florence Foster Jenkins
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
Actress in a supporting role
Viola Davis, Fences
Naomi Harris, Moonlight
Nicole Kidman, Lion
Octavia Spencer, Hidden Figures
Michelle Williams, Manchester by the Sea
Directing
Damien Chazelle, La La Land
Mel Gibson, Hacksaw Ridge
Barry Jenkins, Moonlight
Kenneth Lonergan, Manchester by the Sea
Denis Villeneuve, Arrival
Documentary (feature)
13th
Fire at Sea
I Am Not Your Negro
Life Animated
O.J.: Made in America
Foreign language film
Land of Mine, Denmark
A Man Called Ove, Sweden
The Salesman, Iran
Tanna, Australia
Toni Erdman, Germany
Animated feature film
Kubo and the Two Strings
Moana
My Life as a Cougarette
The Red Turtle
Zootopia
For a full list of nominations, visit www.oscars.com.

Ellis Nassour is an Ole Miss alum and noted arts journalist and author who recently donated an ever-growing exhibition of performing arts history to the University of Mississippi. He is the author of the best-selling Patsy Cline biography, Honky Tonk Angel, as well as the hit musical revue, Always, Patsy Cline. He can be reached at ENassour@aol.com. 
Follow HottyToddy.com on Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat @hottytoddynews. Like its Facebook page: If You Love Oxford and Ole Miss…