MANCHESTER BY THE SEA Official Trailer (2016) Casey Affleck
Movie musicals are back. Mel Gibson is back. The Oscars arent quite so white as they usually are. And New England has a special knack for turning out Academy Award nominees.
These were the lessons to be learned from this mornings announcement of the nominations for the 89th annual Academy Awards, to be held Feb. 26 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. La La Land, a modern-day throwback to classic Hollywood musicals directed by Providence, Rhode Island native and Harvard grad Damien Chazelle -- hes 32 and its his third movie -- was nominated for 14 Oscars, tying the record set by All About Eve in 1951 and Titanic in 1998.
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Manchester by the Sea, a bleakly moving drama set in the North Shore town of the title, was nominated for five awards, including the lead performance by Cambridges own Casey Affleck and two for writer-director Kenneth Lonergan. Other nominations going to artists with local ties include Rhode Island-raised Viola Davis, a best supporting actress nominee for Fences; Harvard graduate Natalie Portman, nominated for best actress for Jackie; and -- a surprise in the original song category -- Sting and J. Ralphs The Empty Chair from the documentary Jim: The James Foley Story, directed by New Hampshire native Brian Oakes.
Nine films were nominated for best picture, representing a mixture of big (La La Land, Arrival, Hidden Figures, Hacksaw Ridge), intimate (Manchester by the Sea, Moonlight, Fences), epic (Lion) and action-oriented (h**l or High Water). Surprises were few but striking. The five nominationsfor the WWII drama Hacksaw Ridge -- including Andrew Garfields lead performance and, most notably, Mel Gibsons direction -- served notice that the controversial actor-directors time in Hollywood exile may be over.
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Other surprises? The strong showing of such well-crafted disaster dramas as Deepwater Horizon (two nominations) and 13 Hours (one nomination) in the technical categories, and the recent sci-fi box office bust Passengers in production design and original score. The poor showing of Martin Scorseses latest labor of love, Silence, with only one nomination, for cinematography, and the complete shut-out of Pixar. No one expected Michael Shannon to get nominated for his wingding lawman in Nocturnal Animals, but no one is complaining, either. And, yes, the absence of Amy Adams in the best actress category is a curious oversight, especially given the eight other nominations that went to Arrival.
The list of nominees
La La Land led the pack with 14 Oscar nominations.
Another notable divergence from the Oscar norm: the relative plethora of creators of color in many categories, including best director (Barry Jenkins for Moonlight), best actor (Denzel Washington for Fences), best actress (Ruth Negga for Loving), supporting actor (Mahershala Ali for Moonlight and Dev Patel for Lion), and supporting actress (Viola Davis for Fences -- her third career Oscar nomination, a record for a black actress -- Naomi Harris for Moonlight, and Octavia Spencer for Hidden Figures).
Moonlight tied with Arrival for the most nominations (eight) after La La Land. In addition, the best feature documentary category reflected a renewed focus on issues of race, with nominations going to I Am Not Your Negro (about the writer James Baldwin), the eight-hour O.J.: Made in America), and Ava DuVernays 13th, about the prison crisis. Oscar guilt? How about a welcome and overdue development?
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In other news, of course, glamour and stardom ruled. The best actor category includes Affleck, Washington, Garfield, Ryan Gosling (La La Land) , and Viggo Mortensen (Captain Fantastic), all of whom fill out a tuxedo splendidly. Best actress nominees include Negga, Natalie Portman (Jackie), Emma Stone (La La Land), Isabelle Huppert (Elle), and -- in her 20th nomination in 38 years -- Meryl Streep (Florence Foster Jenkins).
The red carpet should be fantastic, dahling.
Ty Burr can be reached at ty.burr@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @tyburr.
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