Reaction to the 2017 Oscar Nominations!

​Hello, fellow moviegoers!
   To a movie buff, Oscar-season is almost as exciting as Christmas. Yesterday, the nominations for the 89th Annual Academy Awards were announced, and that’s something I’d be remiss not to talk about. I’m not going to list all of the nominees for all of the categories here, but you can find them on the official website (link). I wanted to talk about some of the major categories.

​   Let’s start by talking about the big award, Best Picture. This year, there was a total of nine films nominated for Best Picture. Those films were: Arrival, Fences, Hacksaw Ridge, Hell or High Water, Hidden Figures, La La Land, Lion, Manchester by the Sea, and Moonlight (You can find my reviews for those films by clicking on the titles). I’ve seen six of the nine films nominated this year, and from what I’ve heard of the other three, I think the Academy, for the most part, got it right this year. These might not have been the nine that I would’ve picked, but I can’t make any legitimate arguments against any of these films. If I had to remove one from this list, it would probably be Hidden Figures, as I wasn’t blown away by that film. However, I know that I’m in the minority on that one, so no complaints from me.
   One thing that I was glad to see was Viggo Mortensen being recognized for Captain Fantastic in the Actor in a Leading Role category. He gave an absolutely fantastic (no pun intended) performance in that film, and not many people saw it. Hopefully, this convinces more people to see the film because it was a unique little film that I think really deserves some attention. Mortensen has no chance at winning the award, that award will go to Casey Affleck, but I’m glad to see that he was recognized.
   I think people are a little too trigger-happy to call something a snub. It seems like if someone thinks something should’ve been nominated, then it wasn’t, people automatically call it a snub. I’m a little more hesitant to call something a snub. Before getting upset about a snub, you should ask two questions: “Did it have any chance at winning?” and “What would you take out for it?”.  That being said, there are two things that I might consider to be snubs this year, but they’re not major ones.
   The first, and most prominent, snub this year was Amy Adams for Actress in a Leading Role. I’m a little hesitant here, because of the five nominations (Isabelle Huppert, Ruth Negga, Natalie Portman, Emma Stone, Meryl Streep) I’ve only seen two. That being said, I thought Amy Adams in Arrival was much better than Meryl Streep in Florence Foster Jenkins. Don’t get me wrong, Streep gave a great performance in that film, but I would rank Adams over her, and I believed she had a legitimate shot at winning this year. I would've also like to see Taraji P. Henson get some recognition from Hidden Figures here, but I'm not sure who I'd remove, as I haven't seen Huppert, Negga, or Portman's performances.
   The second surprising thing to me was the complete shut-out of Sing Street. I wasn’t expecting it to get a lot of recognition (Although I would replace Hidden Figures with it for Best Picture), but I thought for sure it would get a nomination for Original Song. Nope, none at all. It was disappointing because Sing Street was wonderful! It was my second favorite film of last year, and I was hoping it would get at least a little recognition. 
​​   Before I get to the most exciting thing about the Oscars this year, I want to briefly touch on Deadpool. There are a lot of people legitimately upset that it didn’t get a Best Picture or Adapted Screenplay nomination. They were convinced it would after its Golden Globes nominations, and also its nominations from the DGA, PGA, and WGA, which often foreshadow the results of the Oscars. While it would’ve been neat to see Deadpool get some recognition, I don’t think that it’s necessarily a snub like some people are saying. If you legitimately expected Deadpool to get nominated for Best Picture, you need to consider two things: the kinds of films the Academy likes to recognize, and the quality of nominees this year.
   Now to the most exciting thing, La La Land. As many of you know, I absolutely love La La Land. It was my favorite film of 2016, and I can’t get enough of it! So, you can probably guess that I’m pretty hyped to see it get 14 nominations! It was nominated for Best Picture, Actor in a Leading Role (Ryan Gosling), Actress in a Leading Role (Emma Stone), Directing, Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Film Editing, Production Design, Costume Design, Original Score, Original Song (Audition (The Fools Who Dream)), Original Song (City of Stars), Sound Mixing, and Sound Editing! Honestly, I couldn’t agree more with these nominations. Do I think it will win all of them? No, no chance at all. If I had to guess, it’ll win about half of them, which is still seven Oscars! That’s crazy, and very well deserved!

​   So what did you think about the Oscar nominations this year? Do you think there were any major snubs? If so, what were they? Let me know by commenting on this post! Also, if you enjoyed this article, share it on Facebook and Twitter! Don’t forget, I post every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, so check back then for more movie reviews and miscellaneous movie thoughts!
 
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