Can 'La La Land' waltz away with all the Oscars glory?
SUNDAY
FEBRUARY 26 2017
Caption:
Final preparations for the 2017 Oscars on underway at the red carpet arrivals
area, February 25, 2017 one day before the 89th annual Oscars, outside the
Dolby Theater in Hollywood, California.. PHOTO | AFP
Televised live by ABC and
shown around the world, the 89th Academy Awards will be held at Hollywood's
Dolby Theatre, and hosted by late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel. It begins
at 0130 GMT Monday.
Stone is expected to bag
her first statuette in the best actress category despite a late push from
France's Isabelle Huppert, who already has a Golden Globe and Spirit Award for
rape-revenge thriller "Elle."
Gosling is expected to be
comfortably behind Affleck and Washington in best actor, however, languishing
alongside Andrew Garfield ("Hacksaw Ridge") and Viggo Mortensen
("Captain Fantastic").
HOLLYWOOD
Hollywood
will be sprinkled with stardust on Sunday at the Oscars, with dreamy nostalgic
musical "La La Land" tipped for glory on the film industry's biggest
night.
Damien
Chazelle's glossy tribute to the all-singing, all-dancing Golden Age of
Tinseltown's studio system is vying for 13 statuettes, and many of its 14
nominees are sure-fire winners — if the oddsmakers are right.
The
film, which stars Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling as an aspiring actress and a
struggling jazz musician who fall in love in Los Angeles, has charmed critics
the world over and returned more than 10 times its $30 million budget.
Gold
Derby, a site that collates the awards predictions of experts, had the musical
as a clear favourite in 10 categories late Saturday, including best film,
director, actress, score and song.
But it
is expected to fall short of the record 11 statuettes achieved by
"Ben-Hur" (1959), "Titanic" and "The Lord of the
Rings: Return of the King" (2003).
"La
La Land" will vie for best picture honors with eight films including alien
thriller "Arrival," family drama "Manchester by the Sea"
and "Moonlight," the coming-of-age story of an African-American in
Miami.
HIGHLIGHT OF AWARD SEASON
The
most intriguing race is for best actor, which for weeks looked like a lock for
"Manchester by the Sea" star Casey Affleck until a late surge by
Denzel Washington ("Fences"), who now has the momentum.
"It's
pretty exciting. I've only been once before. I was a lot younger and I didn't
fully appreciate the significance of it," said Affleck, 41, who was a
losing best supporting actor nominee in 2008.
"There
are a lot of people in the Academy... who I admire. Denzel Washington is one of
the people who taught me how to act and I've never met the man."
Stone
is expected to bag her first statuette in the best actress category despite a
late push from France's Isabelle Huppert, who already has a Golden Globe and
Spirit Award for rape-revenge thriller "Elle."
Gosling
is expected to be comfortably behind Affleck and Washington in best actor,
however, languishing alongside Andrew Garfield ("Hacksaw Ridge") and
Viggo Mortensen ("Captain Fantastic").
Televised
live by ABC and shown around the world, the 89th Academy Awards will be held at
Hollywood's Dolby Theatre, and hosted by late night talk show host Jimmy
Kimmel. It begins at 0130 GMT Monday.
It is
the highlight of the Tinseltown calendar, and wraps up two months of glittering
prize galas.
This
awards season, the popping of champagne corks has been muted by the tense
political situation in the United States.
President
Donald Trump's controversial (and now halted) travel ban — which led Iranian
director Asghar Farhadi to opt out of attending despite a nomination for
"The Salesman" — has sparked much anger.
Oscars
weekend started with an anti-Trump rally organized by the United Talent Agency
in Beverly Hills, which featured speakers including Jodie Foster and Michael J.
Fox.
Also on
Friday, directors of the five nominees for best foreign language film,
including Farhadi, issued a statement condemning "the climate of
fanaticism and nationalism" in the US.
POLITICAL ACTIVISM
"Moonlight"
picked up best film and director honours as well as four other statuettes at
Saturday's Spirit Awards, which recognize achievements in independent
filmmaking.
Director
Barry Jenkins and many cast members wore pins symbolizing unity, while Jenkins
spoke of his disappointment over the divisions in society that the election had
exposed.
The
awards season has a long tradition of political activism, from Marlon Brando's
Oscars snub in 1973 to Meryl Streep's rousing anti-Trump speech at this year's
Golden Globes — and pundits are not expecting celebrities to hold back on
Sunday.
This
year's nominees reflected a push by the Academy to reward diversity after the
#OscarsSoWhite controversy of the past two years that prompted calls for a
boycott of the annual bash.
Black
actors Mahershala Ali and Naomie Harris are first-time nominees for
"Moonlight," while "Fences" hopefuls Washington and his
co-star Viola Davis are both old hands, with 11 nominations between them and
two wins for Washington.
Davis
is seen as a sure bet for her first Academy Award, and Ali is the favorite in
his category.
"I
watch the Oscars on TV. I come up with 14, 15 of my own personal speeches for
that day to come when I get there... I'm in love with the Oscars,"
African-American actor Andre Royo told AFP.
For
Royo, best known for his work on HBO's "The Wire," "'Moonlight'
is the best film of the year."
"The
director executed the story from a real sensitive and organic point of view,
and looked like he didn't care what the audience would think. He just wanted to
tell a story," he said.
_______
Nominees in main Oscars categories
Here
are the nominees in key categories for the 89th Academy Awards, to be handed
out on Sunday in Hollywood:
Best picture:
"Arrival"
"Fences"
"Hacksaw
Ridge"
"Hell
or High Water"
"Hidden
Figures"
"La
La Land"
"Lion"
"Manchester
by the Sea"
"Moonlight"
Best director:
Denis
Villeneuve, "Arrival"
Mel
Gibson, "Hacksaw Ridge"
Damien
Chazelle, "La La Land"
Kenneth
Lonergan, "Manchester by the Sea"
Barry
Jenkins, "Moonlight"
Best actor:
Casey
Affleck, "Manchester by the Sea"
Andrew
Garfield, "Hacksaw Ridge"
Ryan
Gosling, "La La Land"
Viggo
Mortensen, "Captain Fantastic"
Denzel
Washington, "Fences"
Best actress:
Isabelle
Huppert, "Elle"
Ruth
Negga, "Loving"
Natalie
Portman, "Jackie"
Emma
Stone, "La La Land"
Meryl
Streep, "Florence Foster Jenkins"
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"
Best supporting actress:
Viola
Davis, "Fences"
Naomie
Harris, "Moonlight"
Nicole
Kidman, "Lion"
Octavia
Spencer, "Hidden Figures"
Michelle
Williams, "Manchester by the Sea"
Best foreign language film:
"Land
of Mine" (Denmark)
"A
Man Called Ove" (Sweden)
"The
Salesman" (Iran)
"Tanna"
(Australia)
"Toni
Erdmann" (Germany)
Best animated feature:
"Kubo
and the Two Strings"
"Moana"
"My
Life as a Zucchini"
"The
Red Turtle"
"Zootopia"
Best documentary feature:
"Fire
at Sea"
"I
Am Not Your Negro"
"Life,
Animated"
"OJ:
Made in America"
"13th"
Best original screenplay:
"Hell
or High Water" - Taylor Sheridan
"La
La Land" - Damien Chazelle
"The
Lobster" - Yorgos Lanthimos and Efthimis Filippou
"Manchester
by the Sea" - Kenneth Lonergan
"20th
Century Women" - Mike Mills
Best adapted screenplay:
"Arrival"
- Eric Heisserer
"Fences"
- August Wilson
"Hidden
Figures" - Allison Schroeder and Theodore Melfi
"Lion"
- Luke Davies
"Moonlight"
- Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney
Best cinematography:
"Arrival"
- Bradford Young
"La
La Land" - Linus Sandgren
"Lion"
- Greig Fraser
"Moonlight"
- James Laxton
"Silence"
- Rodrigo Prieto
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)" from "La La Land"
"Can't
Stop The Feeling" from "Trolls"
"City
of Stars" from "La La Land"
"The
Empty Chair" from "Jim: The James Foley Story"
"How
Far I'll Go" from "Moana"
Best visual effects:
"Deepwater
Horizon"
"Doctor
Strange"
"The
Jungle Book"
"Kubo
and the Two Strings"
"Rogue
One: A Star Wars Story"
Number of nominations for films with three or more nods:
"La
La Land" - 14
"Arrival"
- 8
"Moonlight"
- 8
"Hacksaw
Ridge" - 6
"Lion"
- 6
"Manchester
by the Sea" - 6
"Fences"
- 4
"Hell
or High Water" - 4
"Hidden
Figures" - 3
"Jackie"
– 3
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