Ranking the 2016 Best Picture Nominees
Tags: Movies, Oscars, Moonlight, Academy Awards, Film Reviews

Ranking the 2016 Best Picture Nominees

‘La La Land’ had its moment, but year belonged to ‘Moonlight’

Audience members at the 89th Academy Awards in Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre exhibit a range of emotions watching “Moonlight” win the Oscar for Best Picture minutes after the honor was mistakenly awarded to “La La Land,” on Feb. 26, 2017. Photo courtesy of Associated Press

By Todd Hill

Frankly, it’s surprising that it hasn’t happened more often.

Historically, the 89th Academy Awards could have been remembered for rewarding the most deserving nominees, hardly a perennial event. At least most film critics felt that’s how it went down.

These Oscars perhaps should have been remembered for their remarkable, even historical, diversity — as far as black actors and films about the black experience were concerned, since the diversity certainly didn’t extend to other demographics. It’s likely that this came about as a direct result of the #OscarsSoWhite movement of the year before, which may render it less than organic, but hey, whatever it takes.

These Oscars will inevitably be remembered, however, for a historically massive flub. Presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway named “La La Land” as the Best Picture winner when in fact the winner was “Moonlight,” correctly announced a few minutes later in just about the most awkward manner possible. A clearly peeved producer for “La La Land,” on stage to accept an Oscar that didn’t belong to him, had to spill what just happened, while emphasizing that no, this wasn’t a joke.

Beatty and Dunaway, who were there to mark the 50th anniversary of the release of their landmark film “Bonnie and Clyde,” were handed an envelope naming “La La Land’s” Emma Stone the winner of the Best Actress Oscar, which she had indeed won earlier in the evening. Opening the envelope, a confused Beatty said nothing, and seeming to recognize the mistake in his hand hesitated about what to do. He then just slipped the card to Dunaway, who without hardly glancing at it quickly announced Stone’s film as the Best Picture winner.

But before we criticize Beatty or Dunaway for doing their part to let this blunder occur, we should be thoroughly confident that we would not similarly freeze in front of a global live audience. Re-watching the moment today, it’s still fairly stunning to see the onstage chaos slowly resolve itself, especially given that nothing like this had ever happened before in Oscars history and probably never will again. At least it better not.

But, to the movies. Qualitatively, a Best Picture win for “La La Land” wouldn’t have been a travesty, while quantitatively, it seemed almost inevitable. The film was nominated for a whopping 14 Oscars, tying it with “All About Eve” (1950) and “Titanic” (1997), two Hollywood heavyweights with which it doesn’t really compare, for the most on record (both earlier films deservedly won the top prize).

While I cheered “Moonlight’s” big win on at least one level, and while “La La Land” grabbing Best Picture wouldn’t have bothered me either, my personal choice for the best American film of 2016 was a title that likely didn’t come close to receiving the honor. And that’s OK too. It’s rare for my favorite film to come out on top in any given year. But that doesn’t make me any less confident about ranking 2016’s Best Picture nominees as follows:

Denzel Washington, who also directed, and Viola Davis appear in the screen adaptation of the August Wilson stage play “Fences.” Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Fences

Too stagy? Perhaps some Oscar voters felt that way about this August Wilson play-turned-movie. Filmmakers are routinely compelled to open up stage productions for the big screen, an understandable impulse. Denzel Washington, who directed and stars here, found ample opportunity to shoot in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, but he also appreciated the importance of confined spaces to this claustrophobic familial drama. The emotions barely contained within the characters portrayed by Washington, Viola Davis and others are immense. This conflicted family figuratively bounces against the flimsy walls of its soot-covered rowhouse. Of all of this year’s Best Picture nominees, this is the one that has lingered the longest in my consciousness, which I have to credit.

Oscar nominations, 4 — Best Picture, Actor (Denzel Washington), Supporting Actress (Viola Davis), Adapted Screenplay. Oscar wins, 1 — Supporting Actress.

Casey Affleck, left, received the Oscar for Best Actor, while Lucas Hedges, right, garnered a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination, both for their performances in “Manchester by the Sea.” Photo courtesy of Roadside Attractions

Manchester by the Sea

Kenneth Lonergan should make more movies (this was only his third in 16 years), and Casey Affleck should star in them. Given how challenging it is to see any motion picture through to fruition, this is probably not likely, but at least we will have this intense domestic drama to return to, even if many may not be eager to revisit it. It has frequently been compared to the 1980 Best Picture winner “Ordinary People,” which is apt. Here as there, a wrenching tragedy in the past continues to color the lives of those who survived it. But this movie is not the total downer that Robert Redford’s directorial accomplishment managed to be, thanks to injections of welcome humor. Michelle Williams is a bit underused, but Lucas Hedges’ debut feels like a once-in-a-generation comet.

Oscar nominations, 6 — Best Picture, Director (Kenneth Lonergan), Actor (Casey Affleck), Supporting Actor (Lucas Hedges), Supporting Actress (Michelle Williams), Original Screenplay (Kenneth Lonergan). Oscar wins, 2 — Actor, Original Screenplay.

Amy Adams, pictured with Jeremy Renner, portrays a linguist who has a close encounter with alien intelligence in the sci-fi film “Arrival.” Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Arrival

Until I came across this film, I never had a moment’s interest in linguistics. That interest didn’t last for more than a few hours after I’d finished this high-toned sci-fi picture, but my point is the movie works on a level most never achieve. It’s early yet, but it has already become apparent this film has a staying power most of its fellow nominees haven’t managed. And director Denis Villeneuve has become a filmmaker to watch. We already know that Amy Adams, who stars as an open-minded linguist here, never turns in a bad performance, no matter the movie. Intellectually, the picture takes up where 1977’s “Close Encounters of a Third Kind” left off, which is intended as high praise. It’s deeply entertaining, but you have to pay attention.

Oscar nominations, 8 — Best Picture, Director (Denis Villeneuve), Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Production Design, Film Editing, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing. Oscar wins, 1 — Sound Editing.

Mahershala Ali portrays a father figure to Chiron, played as a child by Alex Hibbert, in “Moonlight,” the 2016 Best Picture winner. Photo courtesy of A24

Moonlight

While it’s a shame this Best Picture winner had its moment in the sun ruined, thanks to the snafu that momentarily gave the award to “La La Land,” I obviously don’t agree that the best picture of the year actually won Best Picture. That’s clearly the short-term consensus, although only time will tell whether the film will come to be considered essential. Director Barry Jenkins is certainly a filmmaker with potential (his follow-up title, 2018’s “If Beale Street Could Talk,” should’ve gotten a Best Pic nod). The 2016 Oscars were arguably the most diverse in Academy Award history, and this movie, about a gay black man, went far to normalize a demographic for the rest of us. But watching the film, I felt like I was on the outside looking in.

Oscar nominations, 8 — Best Picture, Director (Barry Jenkins), Supporting Actor (Mahershala Ali), Supporting Actress (Naomie Harris), Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Film Editing, Score. Oscar wins, 3 — Best Picture, Supporting Actor, Adapted Screenplay.

Although “La La Land,” starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, received the most Academy Awards of any film on Oscar night — six awards from a record-tying 14 nominations — it did not win Best Picture. Photo courtesy of Lionsgate

La La Land

Damien Chazelle’s contempo-styled musical is a real movie movie, always a rare, precious and welcome commodity. And this explains why it so easily hogged the spotlight during awards season; a Best Picture win for the film would’ve made perfect sense. Even so, I’d rather watch “Singin’ in the Rain” for the umpteenth time. Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling may be movie stars, but their singing and dancing skills aren’t top of the line, rendering them curious choices for demanding roles like these (Gosling’s persona is also a touch too moody for a musical). And what’s with the downbeat ending? Is Chazelle shattering genre expectations just because he can? His influences are worthy ones, but he doesn’t really improve on them.

Oscar nominations, 14 — Best Picture, Director (Damien Chazelle), Actor (Ryan Gosling), Actress (Emma Stone), Original Screenplay (Damien Chazelle), Cinematography, Production Design, Film Editing, Costume Design, Score, Original Song (two nominations), Sound Editing, Sound Mixing. Oscar wins, 6 — Director, Actress, Cinematography, Production Design, Score, Original Song (one win).

Ben Foster and Chris Pine, from left, portray a pair of principled bank robbers — they need the money to save the family farm — in the modern-day western “Hell or High Water.” Photo courtesy of Lionsgate

Hell or High Water

Everyday Americans have had issues with banks going back at least to the presidency of Andrew Jackson. Their vicarious love for bank robbers, especially ones ripping across the hot and dusty southern Plains via automobile, is a relatively more recent but still vibrant phenomenon. The filmmakers behind this title are hardly the first to recognize that combining the two can make for a pleasurable movie. Jeff Bridges, because he’s Jeff Bridges, got a lot of attention for chewing the scenery as a Texas Ranger, but it’s Chris Pine who makes the more significant impression here. He would be a bigger movie star if Hollywood still cared about movie stars. The film makes a well-placed statement about benign racism that is ultimately just benign.

Oscar nominations, 4 — Best Picture, Supporting Actor (Jeff Bridges), Original Screenplay (Taylor Sheridan), Film Editing. Oscar wins, 0.

Andrew Garfield plays Desmond Doss, the first conscientious objector to receive the Medal of Honor in American military history, in the World War II film “Hacksaw Ridge.” Photo courtesy of Summit Entertainment

Hacksaw Ridge

I remembered this as a Clint Eastwood title, which possibly makes sense given that filmmaker’s penchant for telling stories about real-life heroes (the movie’s concerned with an American conscientious objector who served during World War II). But this film is unusually violent and gory even for a war movie, the surest sign that it was helmed by Mel Gibson. His direction here is little more than workmanlike, which somehow garnered him an Oscar nomination. Gibson’s film shows little interest in the religious and philosophical motivations for going into battle without a weapon. Fortunately, the movie does have Andrew Garfield, among his generation’s more interesting actors, in the lead role.

Oscar nominations, 6 — Best Picture, Director (Mel Gibson), Actor (Andrew Garfield), Film Editing, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing. Oscar wins, 2 — Film Editing, Sound Mixing.

Dev Patel stars as an Australian man searching for his biological family in India in “Lion,” one of the most popular films on record in Australia. Photo courtesy of The Weinstein Company

Lion

How many movie fans even remember that this film was nominated for Best Picture, or can recall anything about it at all? A refresher — a poor, little boy in India falls asleep on a train, becomes lost in Calcutta, and winds up being adopted by a wealthy family in Australia. Dev Patel, in an emotional performance, plays the adult version of the boy, determined against all odds to find his biological family. Fortunately for him, there is Google Earth. Nicole Kidman makes a strong impression (no surprise) as the Aussie mom, and a revelation in the closing credits (the film is based on a true story) is a stunner. It certainly got to me. But then I completely forgot the movie had ever existed until I began work on this article.

Oscar nominations, 6 — Best Picture, Supporting Actor (Dev Patel), Supporting Actress (Nicole Kidman), Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Score. Oscar wins, 0.

Janelle Monae portrays Mary Jackson, NASA’s first African-American female engineer, in “Hidden Figures.” Photo courtesy of 20th Century Fox

Hidden Figures

This inspirational true story, about African-American women working at NASA during the race to the moon in the 1960’s, is just one of many reasons why the year was one of the Oscars’ most racially diverse. A round of applause for that, but anyone who actually saw this movie may want to restrict their clapping to just the polite variety. Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monae are all well cast and acquit themselves well. Kevin Costner even delivers a livelier performance than usual in a supporting turn. But you’ve seen all of it before. Sure, the film makes us feel good, and morally superior to the generations that preceded us, but that’s all it does. This is Oscar bait at its most formulaic.

Oscar nominations, 3 — Best Picture, Supporting Actress (Octavia Spencer), Adapted Screenplay. Oscar wins, 0.

For further consideration

Ever since the Academy expanded the number of Best Picture nominees from five to up to 10 — reminiscent of the 1930’s and 1940’s, when eight up to a whopping 12 titles got the nod each year — the slate has felt padded, and 2016 was no different. I’ve no trouble including the first five films listed above among the best of the year, but the lineup’s quality falls off fairly fast after that, while the last title is borderline mediocre. At least there were no outright bad movies among the nominees; that’s certainly not the case every year.

Set in Paterson, N.J., the Jim Jarmusch film “Paterson” stars Adam Driver as a driver (of a bus), who also moonlights as a poet, named Paterson. Photo courtesy of Amazon Studios

There wasn’t an abundance of cinematic riches to choose from in 2016 either, but as always, a handful of movies overlooked by the Academy probably deserve to be remembered alongside the Best Picture nominees. Adam Driver, as a bus driver named Paterson in Paterson, N.J., is the biggest reason “Paterson” was among the best-reviewed movies of 2016, even if it is a little twee. But it’s hard to imagine the Oscars ever noticing a film written and directed by Jim Jarmusch.

Natalie Portman portrays first lady Jacqueline Kennedy in the hours and days immediately following the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy. Photo courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures

There’s a moment in “Jackie” when Natalie Portman, as Jackie Kennedy, turns to Peter Sarsgaard, as an accent-free Bobby Kennedy, during those utterly chaotic days between JFK’s assassination and burial, and says, in that first lady’s spidery voice, “You don’t know anything.” He has no rejoinder, and she walks away without waiting for one. “Jackie” couldn’t sustain its sliver of Oscar momentum, which perhaps is just as well, but at least Portman garnered a Best Actress nomination. She positively lit up this movie.

Hailee Steinfeld is a teenager grappling with the trials and tribulations of adolescence in Kelly Fremon Craig’s directorial debut “The Edge of Seventeen,” also starring Woody Harrelson. Photo courtesy of STX Entertainment

Teenage films, even at their apex in the 1980’s when John Hughes was pumping out some of the genre’s best, have never gotten the attention of Academy voters, so it was no surprise that “The Edge of Seventeen,” starring a wonderful Hailee Steinfeld and a wonderfully crotchety Woody Harrelson, lingered under the Oscars radar. At least scores of critics’ groups showered it with praise. It’s still too soon, as of this writing, to know if any of these titles just mentioned will be widely re-watched in years to come, but they made larger impressions on me than several of the 2016 titles nominated for Best Picture.

About this project

Some people vow to visit every continent on the planet, others to read everything Shakespeare (allegedly) wrote. I’ve never had much interest in doing either, but I am committed to seeing every motion picture ever nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award, back to the very first ones in 1927–28 (specifically, I’m talking about films nominated for Outstanding Picture, Outstanding Production, Outstanding Motion Picture, Best Motion Picture and Best Picture; I’m not sure why the Academy has seen fit to change the name of the award so frequently).

I don’t for one moment presume to operate under the assumption that the Best Picture nominees over time consistently represent the best that American filmmakers have had to offer, which is why with each slate of nominees I also briefly consider the consensus critical picks for the best movies of that year(s). Yes, there’s a lot of overlap, but not as much as there should be.

So, why am I taking the time to watch and then write about so many (563 following the 2019 Academy Awards) often sub-par movies? As anyone with just a passing knowledge of the Oscars knows, the voters often get it wrong, which isn’t so much fascinating as it is frustrating. The Oscars, however, have always mattered to the film industry, and matter still (the annual awards telecast, not so much). Each year’s Best Picture nominees help to paint a picture of how Hollywood saw itself at that time, they provide us with glimpses at trends in movie history that could be gone for good.

Most of all, they supply context. Think this year’s slate of nominees was the best ever? The worst? I can virtually guarantee you that’s not the case. No, really. You’d be surprised.

Todd Hill is a former journalist with 30 years of experience, much of it in film criticism, who misses neither journalism nor the film beat.