UNITED STATES

Academy announces nominees for Oscars

January 24, 2017

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles announces the contenders for Oscar honors ahead of the awards ceremony in February. The nominations will be scanned to see if the social media hashtag #OscarsSoWhite still applies.

Explaining the hashtag and a near uproar about the lack of diversity in Hollywood, the Los Angeles Times notes that when the Academy announced its 2016 Oscar nominees, only white actors and actresses were among the picks in the top four categories for the second year in a row.

Eight movies with diverse casts and crews are vying for Oscar inclusion this year, and at least two – Nate Parker’s The Birth of a Nation, and Fences, starring Denzel Washington and Viola Davis – can count on nomination. For the hashtag to be retired, the contenders with diversity credentials will need to land one or another of the major awards.

As its top picks for Best Picture, the film industry publication Indiewire lists (alphabetically) Arrival, Fences, Hell or High Water, La La Land, Loving, Manchester by the Sea, and Moonlight. The publication lists most of the stars of the top predictions as likely contenders for the acting awards.

#21979 Published: December 22, 2016