Cameras and cell phones at the ready, fans and members of the media have begun to gather outside the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles for the 89th Academy Awards celebration.
Sunday night’s Oscars are shaping up to be one of the most turbulent and politically charged ceremonies in recent memory. The 3-hour-plus telecast is expected to resemble one very glitzy protest against U.S. President Donald Trump.
“La La Land ” is in the lead film with 14 Oscar nominations including best actor, actress, director and picture. That ties the record shared with “All About Eve”and “Titanic”. Close behind are “Arrival” and “Moonlight”, each with eight nominations.
The other films up for best picture are Denzel Washington’s Fences, Mel Gibson’s “Hacksaw Ridge”, David Mackenzie’s “Hell or High Water”, Theodore Melfi’s “Hidden Figures”, Kenneth Lonergan’s “Manchester by the Sea” and Garth Davis’ “Lion”.
The #OscarsSoWhite crisis of the last two years was largely quelled this season by a richly diverse slate of nominees, thanks to films like “Moonlight”, “Fences” and “Hidden Figures”. A record six black actors are nominated. For the first time ever, a person of color is nominated in each acting category. And four of the five best documentary nominees also were directed by black filmmakers.
The nominees follow the efforts by Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences President Cheryl Boone Isaacs to diversify the membership of the largely white, older and male film academy. In June, the academy added 683 new members: 46 percent of them were female; 41 percent were nonwhite; and they pulled from 59 countries.
In Photos: Oscars Red Carpet Arrivals
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