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Oscars 2017 Finally Moves Past #OscarsSoWhite, But Still Has Plenty Of Snubs And Surprises

By Stacey Cole
Published on: 04:10 PST, Jan 30, 2017

Oscars 2017 is full of surprises and snubs, just like the previous two years, according to the Los Angeles Times. The Academy Awards has finally addressed the #OscarsSoWhite row, making its 2017 nominations more diverse by nominating seven people of color in the acting nominations.

Nominees for the 89th Academy Awards ceremony, which will take place on February 26, have finally been revealed. With many excepting Oscars 2017, which will be hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, to continue its #OscarsSoWhite trend, the Academy is full of surprises and snubs this year.

La La Land – quite expectedly – leads the pack with 14 nominations, including for best picture, director, actor, and actress. What’s surprising is that more than half (three out of five) of the nominees contending for the best supporting actress award at the Oscars 2017 are not white (Viola Davis, Naomie Harris, and Octavia Spencer).

While this is not the first time a single acting category has boasted three supporting actresses of color (the honor goes to Oscars 2007, exactly a decade ago), it’s pretty remarkable that Oscars 2017 lineup is so diverse given that the last two consecutive years there were no zero black nominees in the acting categories.

The front-runners in the best leading actress category are Emma Stone (La La Land) and Natalie Portman (Jackie). Casey Affleck, meanwhile, is considered to be the only front-runner in the best leading actor category for his role in Manchester by the Sea despite the fact that Affleck is plagued by sexual harassment accusations from the past.

Nevertheless, the Oscars 2017 still has plenty of snubs and surprises, according to the New York Times. This year, the Academy has nominated at least one actor of color in each of the four acting nominations, which is maybe why the list of snubs includes white actors Amy Adams, Hugh Grant, and Annette Bening.

Although most film critics predicted Amy Adams to secure a nod in the best actress category for her critically lauded role in Arrival at the Oscars 2017, the Academy thought her performance in the sci-fi drama doesn’t deserve a prize.

Interestingly, the snub was apparently also surprising for the Academy itself, because for a few moments the list of nominees on Tuesday morning on the Oscars 2017 website initially included Adams instead of Loving‘s Ruth Negga, who turned out to be the only actress of color in the category.

The Academy did make sure to nominate Meryl Streep, making her the most nominated actress in the acting categories, with a whopping 20 nods between 1978 and 2017. Streep, who has so far won three statuettes, secured the Oscars 2017 nod for her role in Florence Foster Jenkins.

The best director category is also full of snubs and surprises. While Oscars 2017 surprisingly nominated Mel Gibson for directing Hacksaw Ridge, it ignored some of the biggest Hollywood directing giants, including Martin Scorsese and Clint Eastwood.

While the Academy did nominate Denzel Washington in the best leading actor category for the role in his self-directed film Fences, he was shut out from the directing category at the Oscars 2017.

It’s also no less surprising that the Academy nominated as many as five directors of color at the Oscars 2017. While Barry Jenkins has become the fourth black director to land a nomination in the best director category, four out of five nominees in this year’s best documentary directory category are black.

And the last but not least snub, Deadpool. The film starring Ryan Reynolds, which became one of the biggest Hollywood sensations last year, was ignored at the Oscars 2017 despite the fact that it secured nominations at each of the movie industry guilds, including the Golden Globes.

Nevertheless, the list of films nominated for the best picture prize at Oscars 2017 still makes it a pretty good watchlist. The nominees in the category are La La Land, Arrival, Fences, Manchester by the Sea, Moonlight, Hidden Figures, Hacksaw Ridge, Hell or High Water, and Lion.

[Featured Image by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images]

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