Oscar Nominations, Snubs and Reactions

The nominations for the Academy Awards were announced the morning of Tuesday, Jan. 24, and as always they have garnered a lot of discussion. 2016 was a terrific year for film, and overall there were few big surprises, as most of the more acclaimed films got multiple nominations, led by a record-tying 14 awards (matching "Titanic" and "All About Eve") for the musical "La La Land," starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. The musical telling the story of two young people (an actor and a musician) in love in Los Angeles is the perfect mix of fantasy and real life, so it's no surprise that Hollywood is showing it so much love.

So let's take a look at the nominees, with discussion on picks in selected categories.

Best Picture: “Arrival” “Fences” “Hacksaw Ridge” “Hell or High Water” “Hidden Figures” “La La Land” “Lion” “Manchester by the Sea” “Moonlight”

Few surprises here, with most of the usual suspects accounted for. "La La Land" is at this point the runaway favorite, with "Manchester by the Sea" and "Moonlight" (my personal pick for best film of the year) serving as some very deserving dark horses. The "one of these things is not like the other" prize goes to "Hacksaw Ridge," a middling war flick from Mel Gibson that should have been much better than it was.

Best Actor: Casey Affleck, “Manchester by the Sea” Andrew Garfield, “Hacksaw Ridge” Ryan Gosling, “La La Land,” Viggo Mortensen, “Captain Fantastic” Denzel Washington, “Fences”

A few good choices here. Affleck and Washington should be battling for the statue (I'll go Affleck by a nose for his portrayal of a man grieving for much more than the loss of his recently passed brother), while "Ridge" was Garfield's second-best performance of the year, and Mortensen is the most under-the-radar of the group. Gosling could ride the wave if "La La Land" starts running categories, but there are multiple better performances in this category.

Best Actress: Isabelle Huppert, “Elle” Ruth Negga, “Loving” Natalie Portman, “Jackie” Emma Stone, “La La Land” Meryl Streep, “Florence Foster Jenkins

Likewise here Stone, while good, has a tough ladder to climb to best Huppert, who was amazing in "Elle." Streep is carrying the political vote after her skirmish with President Donald Trump at the Golden Globes (and the Twittersphere), and Portman and Negga are both likely to have dedicated supporters. Huppert is probably most deserving, but Stone again could benefit from her film's momentum. The field's big snub here is Rebecca Hall, whose performance in "Christine" was, for my money, the best of the year.

Best Supporting Actor:

Mahershala Ali, “Moonlight” Jeff Bridges, “Hell or High Water” Lucas Hedges, “Manchester by the Sea” Dev Patel, “Lion” Michael Shannon, “Nocturnal Animals”

Ali was spectacular in "Moonlight" as the drug-dealing mentor of the fatherless Chiron and should be the winner in this category. Bridges was particularly strong as well as an aged lawman chasing bank robbers in "Hell." The other three nominees were also tremendous, with Hedges particularly impressing.

Best Supporting Actress Viola Davis, “Fences” Naomie Harris, “Moonlight” Nicole Kidman, “Lion” Octavia Spencer, “Hidden Figures” Michelle Williams, “Manchester by the Sea”

This is Davis' category this year for her fiery, but still often restrained, performance in "Fences." Harris or Williams could maybe sneak up on her, but the smart money here is Davis.

Best Director: “La La Land,” Damien Chazelle “Hacksaw Ridge,” Mel Gibson “Moonlight,” Barry Jenkins “Manchester by the Sea,” Kenneth Lonergan “Arrival,” Denis Villeneuve

It's hard to see the once-great Gibson's name in this category, as "Hacksaw Ridge" took a good story and turned it into schizophrenic war porn, poorly produced and not nearly as interesting as it should have been. Chazelle is the big favorite here, though Lonergan or Jenkins could sneak in as well.

Best Animated Feature: “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

Pixar is almost always the favorite, but "Finding Dory" found itself on the outside looking in this year. I didn't see "Zucchini" or "Turtle," and small films sometimes sneak through in this category. I personally favor "Moana," "Zootopia" and "Kubo" in that order, but "Kubo" is likely to take the prize.

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

"Moonlight" is my pick here, perhaps the consolation prize for standing on the tracks while the "La La Land" train is coming through. "Fences" is also a strong contender, but one of the other three could sneak in here as well.

Best Original Screenplay: “20th Century Women,” Mike Mills “Hell or High Water,” Taylor Sheridan “La La Land,” Damien Chazelle “The Lobster,” Yorgos Lanthimos, Efthimis Filippou “Manchester by the Sea,” Kenneth Lonergan

A surefire way to tell if "La La Land" is just an Oscars pretender is in this category. A loss means maybe voters aren't in love with it as much as the nominations suggest. A win is likely a signifier of an avalanche of other prizes to come. I'm banking on the latter.

Best Cinematography: “Arrival,” Bradford Young “La La Land,” Linus Sandgren “Lion,” Greig Fraser “Moonlight,” James Laxton “Silence,” Rodrigo Prieto

A bunch of beautiful films and the only nomination for Martin Scorsese's latest, "Silence," is the other film not given its due on this list. Most likely this prize will go to "La La Land" as part of its landslide victory.

Best Documentary Feature: “13th,” Ava DuVernay, Spencer Averick and Howard Barish “Fire at Sea,” Gianfranco Rosi and Donatella Palermo “I Am Not Your Negro,” Raoul Peck, Remi Grellety and Hebert Peck “Life, Animated,” Roger Ross Williams and Julie Goldman “O.J.: Made in America,” Ezra Edelman and Caroline Waterlow

A really strong year for documentaries. Any of these films would be worthy of an Oscar win, but I'm personally rooting for the race documentary "13th" (a must-see for anyone, the kind of film they should show in schools) and "O.J.: Made in America," which is a marathon at nearly eight hours in length (it was shown in parts on ESPN earlier this year), but a completely fascinating look at race, media and society as it was in the 1990s and today, and just happens to be a tragic portrait of the worst fall from grace for a sports star in the history of our country.

Here are the remainder of the nominees, on which I will not comment. Do you have any favorites among them?

Best Foreign Language Film: “A Man Called Ove,” Sweden “Land of Mine,” Denmark “Tanna,” Australia “The Salesman,” Iran “Toni Erdmann,” Germany

Best 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 Sound Editing: “Arrival,” Sylvain Bellemare “Deepwater Horizon,” Wylie Stateman and Renee 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

Best Sound Mixing: “Arrival,” Bernard Gariepy 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,” 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

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

Best Original Score: “Jackie,” Mica Levi “La La Land,” Justin Hurwitz “Lion,” Dustin O’Halloran and Hauschka “Moonlight,” Nicholas Britell “Passengers,” Thomas Newman

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

Best Makeup and Hair: “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

Best 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 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,” John Knoll, Mohen Leo, Hal Hickel and Neil Corbould

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 Documentary Short Subject: “4.1 Miles,” Daphne Matziaraki “Extremis,” Dan Krauss “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

Best Live-Action Short Film: “Ennemis Interieurs,” Selim Azzazi “La Femme et le TGV,” Timo von Gunten and Giacun Caduff “Silent Nights,” Aske Bang and Kim Magnusson “Sing,” Kristof Deak and Anna Udvardy “Timecode,” Juanjo Gimenez