If the 2017 Golden Globes Award ceremony was any indication, the 89th Academy Awards 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 seven non-white nominations. 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, CTV News 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/Facebook
Montreal artist Martine Bertrand 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 consulted.
When designing the aliens, sources of inspiration included: octopuses, whales, elephants, and spiders.
Credit: Fences Movie/Facebook
August Wilson, who wrote the play that the film is based on, insisted that a film adaptation be directed by an African-American.
In 2010, Denzel Washington and Viola Davis performed the play on Broadway 114 times.
This is not the first time Denzel Washington has directed Viola Davis. In 2002 he directed her in Antwone Fisher.
Credit: Hacksaw Ridge/Facebook
Desmond T. Doss, the U.S. Army corporal the film is based on, received his Medal of Honor from then U.S. president Harry S. Truman in 1945.
This is the first movie Mel Gibson has directed in 10 years, since the 2006 release of Apocalypto.
Mel Gibson’s son Milo has his film debut in this movie.
Credit: Hell or High Water/Facebook
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 tax incentives.
Taylor Sheridan, who wrote the movie, is an actor-turned-screenwriter. He has a cameo in the movie as a cowboy driving cattle away from a fire.
Credit: Hidden Figures/Facebook
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 a historic house in Atlanta where civil rights legends Ralph Abernathy and Martin Luther King Jr. met.
Besides producing the movie, Pharell Williams also oversaw the music and soundtrack.
Credit: La La Land/Facebook
In all the scenes Ryan Gosling is shown playing the piano — that’s really him playing. He took piano lessons just for the role.
For his role, singer and pianist John Legend had to learn how to play the guitar.
From West Side Story to Wall-E, choreographer Mandy Moore drew inspiration from five different movies when crafting the dance numbers Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling would perform.
Credit: Lion Movie/Facebook
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 accurate as possible.
The last scene of the movie was the first scene Dev Patel filmed.
In an interview, line producer Pravesh Sahni said they auditioned 4,000 boys for the role of the young Saroo Brierly.
Credit: Manchester By The Sea/Facebook
In 2014, the screenplay for this movie was featured in the 2014 Black List. 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, Kevin Grondin, is also one in real life.
There really is a town in Massachusetts called Manchester-by-the-Sea. Until 1989, it was called Manchester.
Credit: Moonlight Mov/Facebook
The movie is based on an unproduced play by MacArthur Fellow Tarell Alvin McCraney, 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 three days.
There’s a scene where Mahershala Ali’s character Juan is teaching Alex R. Hibbert’s character Little to swim. It wasn’t an act. Hibbert did not know how to swim when production started.
