February 14, 2017
Tracey Edson and Katie Cappelletti
Staff Writers
The spotlight will be on all of the nominees that will walking down the runway at the Academy Awards on Sunday, Feb. 26. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, the leading roles in the film “La La Land,” are just two of the many nominees for this year’s award ceremony.
There are nine films that are nominated for the Best Picture Award: “Arrival,” “Fences,” “Hacksaw Ridge,” “Hell or High Water,” “Hidden Figures,” “La La Land,” “Lion,” “Manchester by the Sea,” and “Moonlight.”
Jamesville-DeWitt High School’s Reading Films teacher, Joe Goldberg, has seen six of the nine films that are nominated for Best Picture. Of the six Goldberg has seen, he thinks that “Fences” was the best. Mr. Goldberg has yet to see “La La Land,” but thinks it will be a “very strong contender,” for the Best Picture. However, computer TA Hayley Nies did see “La La Land” and liked it.“I like musicals so I liked that part of it. I thought it was kind of all over the place,” said Ms. Nies.
Most of the nominees for Best Actor and one nominee for Best Actress are leads in the Best Picture Films. One of the exceptions is Viggo Mortensen, who stared in “Captain Fantastic,” which isn’t nominated for Best Picture. Four of the five leading actress nominees didn’t have their film nominated for Best Picture. These include: Isabelle Huppert for “Elle,” Ruth Negga for “Loving,” Natalie Portman for “Jackie,” and Meryl Streep for “Florence Foster Jenkins.” Emma Stone was the only one who’s film, “La La Land,” was nominated.
English teacher Joe DeChick, was a film critic before coming to J-DHS and part of his job was to watch the Oscars. “I think these are five really fine actors and some have been nominated before. If you take all the films and all the performances and you boil it all down to five nominees, they’re all going to be good,” said DeChick about the nominee’s for Actor in Leading Role.
There are many people around the world who will be watching these award presentations on ABC, including students and teachers at J-D as they hope their favorite films, actors, and actresses win an award. Freshman Riley LaTray liked “Hidden Figures,” and hopes it will win the Best Picture award. “In Hidden Figures I really liked how the women stepped up into their roles of being brilliant minds at NASA,” said LaTray.
If you are interested in learning more about the Oscar Awards, including other categories of awards go to oscar.go.com.