Mel Gibson’s Christ-Centered Redemption Storms Hollywood, Awing Critics
Mel Gibson climbed back into Hollywood’s good graces while Amy Adams and Martin Scorsese were edged out at Tuesday’s Oscar nominations, a list that served up some notable surprises.
Whimsical musical romance La La Land, the awards front-runner about two struggling artists who fall in love in Los Angeles, led the race with 14 nominations, including best actor, actress, director and picture.
Among the most notable absences was Oscar-winning filmmaker Scorsese’s new passion project Silence, which stars Andrew Garfield. The story of two missionaries in 17th-century Japan missed out on all the major categories and only landed a nod for cinematography.
Garfield instead was nominated for best actor for his role in war drama Hacksaw Ridge, whose six nods, including best picture and director for Gibson, are an apparent welcome back a decade after his drunken anti-Semitic rant made him a Hollywood outcast.
In the acting categories, awards favorite Amy Adams missed out on a best actress nod for her role as a linguist in sci-fi alien film Arrival, which has earned her critical praise.
Following the announcements, “No Amy Adams” began trending on Twitter, where users expressed disappointment that she was overlooked.
Also missing from the list was Annette Bening for her star turn as a free-spirited single mom in the 1970s in 20th Century Women and Taraji P. Henson for her role as a mathematician in the box-office hit Hidden Figures.
Instead, French actress Isabelle Huppert scored a nod for Elle, and Ireland’s Ruth Negga was recognized for her breakout role in Loving.
Notable snubs on the director side included Tom Ford for his gritty thriller Nocturnal Animals and veteran filmmaker Clint Eastwood for the true-life story of Sully, starring Tom Hanks.
Nocturnal Animals star Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who won the Golden Globe for best supporting actor, missed out on the Oscar nod, but co-star Michael Shannon was nominated in the category. Hugh Grant was also left off the list for his role in Florence Foster Jenkins.
Ryan Reynolds’ raunchy R-rated superhero movie Deadpool was considered a dark horse in the Academy Awards race after landing Golden Globe and Directors Guild nominations, but it received no Oscar nods on Tuesday. {eoa}
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