La La Land ties the all-time record with 14 nominations, matching All About Eve and Titanic. I feel so bad right now for the other eight films that are nominated for Best Picture. I don’t think we’ve had such a slam-dunk Best Picture winner since Return Of The King.

BEST PICTURE

Arrival
Fences
Hacksaw Ridge
Hell Or High Water
Hidden Figures
La La Land
Lion
Manchester By The Sea
Moonlight

Nine nominees. I predicted eight of the nine. Fences was my alternate.

Reviews are pending for Lion and Hidden Figures. I still need to see Hacksaw Ridge (It’s not playing anywhere near me) but this is a pretty good set of nominees from what I can see.

BEST DIRECTOR

Damien Chazelle, La La Land
Mel Gibson, Hacksaw Ridge
Barry Jenkins, Moonlight
Kenneth Lonergan, Manchester By The Sea
Denis Villenueve, Arrival

I predicted 4/5. Again, this is a solid lineup. Nice to see that Mel Gibson has been forgiven.

BEST ACTOR

Casey Affleck, Manchester By The Sea
Andrew Garfield, Hacksaw Ridge
Ryan Gosling, La La Land
Viggo Mortensen, Captain Fantastic
Denzel Washington, Fences

5/5! Can’t fault a good category. Although I should say, I’m seriously debating if La La Land has what it takes to win “The Big Five”. Picture. Director. Actor. Actress. Screenplay. Right now Gosling isn’t in the most prime position to take the award, but there’s a serious chance that this could happen.

BEST ACTRESS

Isabelle Huppert, Elle
Ruth Negga, Loving
Natalie Portman, Jackie
Emma Stone, La La Land
Meryl Streep, Florence Foster Jenkins.

4/5. So, this is probably the biggest shocker of the nominations. Amy Adams is missing. And in her place, Ruth Negga as the sole representation of her film. As much as I loved Amy’s performance, I think I can be okay with the knowledge that this way, people of color are represented in all four acting categories, plus Director.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Mahershala Ali, Moonlight
Jeff Bridges, Hell Or High Water
Lucas Hedges, Manchester By The Sea
Dev Patel, Lion
Michael Shannon, Nocturnal Animals

3/5. I almost predicted Michael Shannon but I didn’t have the guts. Interestingly, he represents the only nomination from Nocturnal Animals. What’s more interesting, is the curious omission of Hugh Grant.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Viola Davis, Fences
Naomie Harris, Moonlight
Nicole Kidman, Lion
Octavia Spencer, Hidden Figures
Michelle Williams, Manchester By the Sea

5/5. This was the obvious lineup, but I still get bragging rights for this.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Hell Or High Water
La La Land
The Lobster
Manchester By The Sea
20th Century Women

4/5. No Jackie. No Zootopia, either. But it’s not like I was hoping for that… (silently starts crying.)

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Arrival
Fences
Hidden Figures
Lion
Moonlight

4/5. Can’t really argue with this lineup.

BEST FILM EDITING

Arrival
Hacksaw Ridge
Hell Or High Water
La La Land
Moonlight

5/5. I’m kind of awesome, in case you haven’t noticed.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Arrival
La La Land
Lion
Moonlight
Silence

4/5. It looks like I will be seeing Silence after all…

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

Arrival
Fantastic Beasts & Where To Find Them
Hail, Caesar!
La La Land
Passengers

4/5. Wow, Passengers is a real surprise. I am happy that I called Hail, Caesar!

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

Allied
Fantastic Beasts & Where To Find Them
Florence Foster Jenkins
Jackie
La La Land

4/5. Well, I may have to see Allied now.

BEST MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING

A Man Called Ove
Star Trek Beyond
Suicide Squad.

1/3. First of all, I have no idea who wins this thing. Second of all, I’m really looking forward to when Deadpool takes a jab at the Oscars in Deadpool 2.

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

Deepwater Horizon
Doctor Strange
The Jungle Book
Kubo & The Two Strings
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

4/5. YAY FOR KUBO! But now I have to watch the entire thing and I’ll probably get super depressed. So BOO! Also, Deepwater Horizon came out of nowhere!

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

Jackie
La La Land
Lion
Moonlight
Passengers

4/5. Wow… looks like I’ve gotta see Passengers now.

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

“Audition (The Fools Who Dream)” – La La Land
“Can’t Stop The Feeling” – Trolls
“City Of Stars” – La La Land
“Empty Chair” – Jim: The James Foley Story
“How Far I’ll Go” – Moana

4/5. One of these things doesn’t belong.

BEST SOUND EDITING

Arrival
Deepwater Horizon
Hacksaw Ridge
La La Land
Sully

3/5. From the moment La La Land got this nomination, we knew it was getting all 14 nominations.

BEST SOUND MIXING

Arrival
Hacksaw Ridge
La La Land
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
13 Hours

4/5. Below is an actual tweet that I posted at 6 PM yesterday.

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

Kubo & The Two Strings
Moana
My Life As A Zucchini
The Red Turtle
Zootopia

4/5. I can’t find Dory.

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

Land Of Mine
A Man Called Ove
The Salesman
Tanna
Toni Erdmann

4/5. This lineup is fine, I just wish the Foreign Film branch had the guts to embrace either animation or Xavier Dolan.

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Fire Of Sea
I Am Not Your Negro
Life, Animated
O.J. Made In America
13th

3/5. When I alphabetize film titles, I tend to list numeric titles first. So I was really furious when I didn’t see 13th, only to realize they were listing it at the bottom. Whoops.

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT

Ennemis Interiors
La Femme et le TGV
Silent Nights
Sing
Timecode

2/5. Well, no one really cares about the shorts anyway.

BEST ANIMATED SHORT

Blind Vaysha
Borrowed Time
Pear Cider & Cigarettes
Pearl
Piper

2/5. Ditto.

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT

Extremis
4.1 Miles
Joe’s Violin
Watani: My Homeland
The White Helmets

4/5. Now that’s more like it.

————-

My final score is 93 /122. Which rounds to 76%. On par with last year. Hey, at least I’m not getting worse.

Starting in February, you can look forward to daily LetsPredict articles where I analyze the Oscars one category at a time.

Until then, it’s just another day of sun.