If the 2017 Golden Globes Award ceremony was any indication, the on February 26, 2017 is going to have its fair share of impassioned speeches, misspoken names, and an extensively long In Memoriam video.
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In recent years, the Oscars have become highly politicized. In 2016, for the second year in a row, only white actors and actresses were nominated in the top four categories, resulting in the trending hashtag #OscarsSoWhite. From Barack Obama to Steven Spielberg, many people weighed in and protested.
Fast forward a year later and the top four categories now have a total of . And of the nine best picture nominations, three — Fences, Hidden Figures, and Moonlight — focus on race relations and the struggles of being black in America.
The remaining best picture nominations have storylines that range from a linguistics expert deciphering an alien language, to a toe-tapping musical, to a young man on a quest to find his lost family — to name a few.
While going through the nominations, Â鶹´«Ã½ came across some interesting trivia about each of the nine best picture nominations. Here are three highlights from each movie, sans spoilers.
Credit: Arrival Movie/
Montreal artist created the inky circular alien language.
To ensure all terminology, graphics and depictions were accurate, scientist and tech innovator Stephen Wolfram and his son Christopher Wolfram were .
When designing the aliens, sources of included: octopuses, whales, elephants, and spiders.
Credit: Fences Movie/
August Wilson, who wrote the play that the film is based on, that a film adaptation be directed by an African-American.
In 2010, Denzel Washington and Viola Davis performed the play on Broadway .
This is not the first time Denzel Washington has directed Viola Davis. In 2002 he directed her in .
Credit: Hacksaw Ridge/
Desmond T. Doss, the U.S. Army corporal the film is based on, from then U.S. president Harry S. Truman in 1945.
This is the first movie Mel Gibson has directed in , since the 2006 release of Apocalypto.
Mel Gibson’s son Milo has his in this movie.
Credit: Hell or High Water/
Chris Pine and Ben Foster were cast in another 2016 movie — The Finest Hours.
Even though the story is set in Texas, much of it was filmed in New Mexico to take advantage of .
Taylor Sheridan, who wrote the movie, is an actor-turned-screenwriter. He has a in the movie as a cowboy driving cattle away from a fire.
Credit: Hidden Figures/
Many of the cast members have worked together in other movies. Taraji P. Henson and Mahershala Ali played love interests in 2008 in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Octavia Spencer and Jim Parsons were in an episode of The Big Bang Theory — The Euclid Alternative — where Spencer played a clerk at the DMV. In 2014, Spencer and Kevin Costner, appeared together in Black or White. Janelle Monáe and Mahershala Ali also acted in another movie nominated for best picture, Moonlight.
One of the scenes in the movie, where Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, and Janelle Monáe are seen playing cards and dancing, is where civil rights legends Ralph Abernathy and Martin Luther King Jr. met.
Besides producing the movie, Pharell Williams also oversaw the music and .
Credit: La La Land/
In all the scenes Ryan Gosling is shown playing the piano — that’s really him playing. He took just for the role.
For his role, singer and pianist John Legend had to .
From West Side Story to Wall-E, choreographer Mandy Moore drew inspiration from when crafting the dance numbers Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling would perform.
Credit: Lion Movie/
The movie is based on a true story of a young man using Google Earth to find his lost family. Google partnered with the filmmakers to make the satellite imagery as as possible.
The last scene of the movie was the Dev Patel filmed.
In an interview, line producer Pravesh Sahni they auditioned 4,000 boys for the role of the young Saroo Brierly.
Credit: Manchester By The Sea/
In 2014, the screenplay for this movie was featured in the 2014 . This is an annual survey of the most liked motion picture screenplays that have not yet been produced.
The actor who plays the funeral director, , is also one in real life.
There really is a town in Massachusetts called . Until 1989, it was called Manchester.
Credit: Moonlight Mov/
The movie is based on an unproduced play by MacArthur Fellow , called In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue.
Naomie Harris’s scenes spanned 15 years in the character's life. They were filmed out of sequence in .
There’s a scene where Mahershala Ali’s character Juan is teaching Alex R. Hibbert’s character Little to swim. Hibbert did not know how to swim when production started.
