Oscar Nominations 2017: A Celebration of Hollywood and Broadway
The Oscars are movies’ biggest night, but this year, it looks like Hollywood and Broadway are set to collide.
The nominations for the 2017 Oscars were announced two nights ago, and though Hollywood A-listers are on the list, like Meryl Streep (Best Actress nominee for “Florence Foster Jenkins”), Nicole Kidman (Best Supporting Actress nominee for “Lion”) and Jeff Bridges (Best Supporting Actor nominee for “Hell or High Water”), theater is also well-represented.
Two of the Best Picture nominees were adapted from stage to screen. “Fences” is based on August Wilson’s 1983 Pulitzer Prize winning play. The movie is nominated for Best Picture, with Denzel Washington and Viola Davis getting nominations for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress as well. The two stars also won Tony Awards for Best Actor and Best Actress in a Play for their roles in the 2010 revival.
Best Picture nominee “Moonlight” is an adaptation of Tarell Alvin McCraney’s play
”In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue”. The coming-of-age drama tied for the second highest number of nominations with 8, including Best Director for Barry Jenkins, Best Supporting Actress for Naomie Harris and Best Supporting Actor for Mahershala Ali.
This year’s nominees also include one man by the name of Lin-Manuel Miranda, who finally got the Oscar nomination everyone has been waiting for. Nominated for Best Song for Moana’s “How Far I’ll Go”, Miranda is on the brink of winning that Holy Grail of the performing arts, the EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony awards). If he wins, Miranda will become the youngest EGOT winner in history.
Miranda will have some stiff competition, though. His fellow nominees for Best Song include
Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, the creators of the Broadway musical “Dear Evan Hansen”, which is also expected to win big at the Tonys later this year. The duo are continuing their dream year with two Oscar nods for their songs “City of Dreams” and “Audition”. Both songs are from the movie “La La Land”, which leads the field with a record-tying 14 nominations, including one for Best Picture. Riding on a massive wave of goodwill from the Golden Globes, this homage to classic movies and Los Angeles is shaping up to dominate this year’s Oscars.
But with a lot more diversity and our favorite theater stars proudly representing, the one thing we’re sure of is that it’s going to be an exciting show.
The Academy Awards will be held on February 26, 2017.
For the full list of nominees, you can check out http://oscar.go.com/nominees.
