La La Land ties record for Oscar nominations

LOS ANGELES, CA. (NEWS 1130) – Seven is the magic number of first-time Oscar acting nominees ahead of this year’s show.

The film academy gave seven actors their first acting Oscar nominations for a variety of performances, from Andrew Garfield’s portrayal of a pacifist World War II medic in “Hacksaw Ridge” to Ruth Negga’s performance in “Loving” as a woman fighting racial prejudice in the Deep South.

Other first-time acting nominees include Mahershala Ali and Naomie Harris for “Moonlight,” Lucas Hedges for “Manchester by the Sea,” Dev Patel for “Lion,” and Isabelle Huppert for “Elle.”

Several Oscar favourites, including previous winners Denzel Washington and Jeff Bridges, were also nominated. And so too was Meryl Streep, who extended her edge as the most nominated performer in Oscars history with her 20th nomination for “Florence Foster Jenkins.”

One of the biggest storylines is the candy-coloured love letter to musicals “La La Land” has landed a record-tying 14 Academy Awards nominations, matching it with “Titanic” and “All About Eve” for the most nominations ever.

“La La Land” has earned nods for best picture, its stars Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling, its songs and its 32-year-old writer-director, Damien Chazelle.

The other nominees for best picture are: “Moonlight,” ”Arrival,” ”Manchester by the Sea,” ”Hell or High Water,” ”Lion,” ”Fences,” ”Hidden Figures” and ”Hacksaw Ridge.”

Canadian nominations

Denis Villeneuve received his first-ever Oscar nomination for directing the aliens-have-landed thriller “Arrival,” which is also up for best picture and six other awards, while Ryan Gosling picked up a best acting nod for “La La Land.”

Montreal’s Villeneuve has been making waves in Hollywood lately with several high-profile films, including the highly anticipated sci-fi film noir “Blade Runner 2049,” which stars Gosling.

“Arrival” has a strong Canadian contingent on the crew and several Canucks are nominated alongside Villeneuve including: Patrice Vermette for production design; Paul Hotte for set decoration; Bernard Gariepy Strobl and Claude La Haye for sound mixing; Sylvain Bellemare for sound editing; and Shawn Levy, who as a producer shares in the best picture nomination.

The National Film Board of Canada animated short “Blind Vaysha” also received an Oscar nomination, while Xavier Dolan missed out on receiving his first-ever Oscar nod. The 27-year-old Montreal director’s drama “It’s Only the End of the World” was up for best foreign language film. The French-language film, about a dying writer who returns home to his estranged family, is up for a leading nine Canadian Screen Awards.

The hardware will be handed out on February 26th and the show will be hosted by Jimmy Kimmel.

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