Loved La La Land. I guess that was expected to get several nominations because its partly about Hollywood.

When it wins it will literally be the 4th film this decade (Birdman,Argo,The Artist) about performers to win BP. Add to that the Crash win which was about what unique slowflakes everyone in La is and I think Time magazine really captured the Zietgeist of Oscars

Except perhaps that Dev Patel was nominated for supporting actor for a movie he had top billing and was the main character.

Hollywood loves nothing better than patting itself on its own back.

He isn't in the first 45 minutes of the movie. They knew submitting him as supporting was the only way he'd have a chance at getting nominated.

I realize that, but I'm just trying to stir the pot.

Geoffrey Rush isn't in the first 45 minutes of Shine is he? He won the Best Actor Oscar for his role.

I know it will never happen, but there needs to be some objective way to fairly delineate a Lead performance from a Supporting performance.

Viola Davis is probably a lead actress as well.

That's a popular trick that always irks me, other examples being Danny Aiello for Do The Right Thing, Martin Landau for Crimes and Misdemeanors and the girl from True Grit.

Every objective fashion I can think of (who is the story about, amount of screentime) breaks down with something like Silence of the Lambs. Hannibal Lector is a supporting character in Clarice's story, but Anthony Hopkins' portrayal is so outstanding he dominates the movie and turns it into a leading performance.

I'm not saying he isn't the lead. I'm giving their way of rationalizing it.

And while I liked Dev Patel's performance, Sunny Pawar was just as strong with very few words. His expressions really captured the struggle as young Saroo.

Viola Davis situation reminds me a lot like Jennifer Connelly in A Beautiful Mind,ton of screentime but in the end it's basically Russell/Denzel's story. It's one of those performances where their is a strong case either way.

It seems like in Hollywood, lead actor is more about presence than screen time. It's also a bit political when studios try to place the actor in the category where they have a higher chance of winning, instead of where they properly belong. They also try to avoid multiple nominees in the same category. Based on these concepts we will no longer have films like The Godfather Part II which had 3 best supporting actor nominations (Michael V. Gazzo/Lee Strasberg/Robert DeNiro) or Network which had 2 lead actor nominations (Peter Finch/William Holden).

I think these are the records for least screen time by male and female lead actors who won :

Anthony Hopkins 16 minutes of screen time in SOTL

Patricia Neal 22 minutes of screen time in Hud

OJ: Made in America being nominated for best documentary feature is an interesting choice.

Besides airing at a few film festivals, did it get any additional theatrical distribution? Plus, the movie would be 7 1/2 hours if played straight through.

I'm sure most who saw it watched it on TV on ABC and ESPN last summer.

This, and he's the one that should have been nominated for supporting actor.

Isn't that every awards show? Emmys, Grammys, Tonys are different?

Yes but if the topic is about Hollywood that is like an awardgasm.

I'm glad LIFE, ANIMATED got nominated for Best Documentary Feature. It was one of the best films I saw last year. It's about an autistic child who could only communicate through dialogue from Disney animated features and how he became a somewhat functioning adult. The boy's father, Ron Suskind, wrote a book about it and is, of course, in the film. He has some connection to Disney, since he's interviewed a lot in the Walt Disney episode of "American Masters." Disney co-produced the documentary, which includes a lot of clips from Disney movies.

Not very many surprises in there, aside from Adams' snub. The Academy needs to stop putting Streep up for everything she does.

I am exceedingly happy to see so many people of color represented, though, because now every asshole with a Twitter account can't pretend Oscar nominations are the crux of race relations and only white people get to attend the party. See what happens when people of color make great films that resonate? They get nominated.

There's already a few who noticed there are no Hispanics.

But to agree with you somewhat, I hope it's not blatantly pointed out and made a story. If you're an actor/actress in a great role giving your best performance, it shouldn't matter what your ethnicity/gender/sexual orientation is.. nor should it need to be pointed out.

Well, there have been 17 total. Not sure how you define "a lot." But anyway, the trend is definitely that Pixar films get at least one nod, and usually win Best Animated Picture. So Dory scoring no noms is noteworthy, and underscores the notion (IMO, anyway) that it ranks closer to Pixar's lesser efforts, in spite of mostly good reviews. I wanted to love it when it first came out, but over time I've come to realize it's not that good.

Then again, maybe in a less strong year, it would've gotten a nod, but as others have noted, this was a strong year for animation.

I'm in the same boat with the other guy that doesn't really care for Pixar movies all that much, but I do think The Incredibles and Ratatouille deserved their wins, and Cars wasn't as bad as it was made out to be.

Yeah this is a super competitive year, 27 eligible animated pics (25 April, Angry Birds, April and the Extraordinary World, Bilal, Finding Dory, Ice Age: Collision Course, Kingsglaive FF XV, Kubo and the Two Srings, Kung Fu Pand 3, The Little PRince, Long Way North, Miss Hokusai, Moana, Monkey King: Hero is Back, Mune: Guardian of the Mune, Mustafa and the Magician, My Life as a Zucchini, Phantom Boy, Ratchet and Clank, The Red Turtle, Sausage Party, The Secret Life of Pets, Sing!, Snowtime!, Storks, Trolls, Your Name, Zootopia)

Holy crap, I had no idea there were that many. Of those, I only saw Dory, Moana, Storks, and Zootopia. (And Dory would rank 4th of those four; I thought Storks was hilarious, and Moana and Zooptopia both deserved Academy Award nominations.) I need to see more of these, especially Kubo.

That's like saying Meryl Streep usually gets an oscar nod, but not for Rikki and the Jets.

I get your point, but she really is great in Florence Foster Jenkins, and it's a larger-than-life character in an entertaining movie. I'd hoped Hugh Grant would get some recognition for his role, too.