SF Movie “Arrival” Nominated For 8 Academy Awards

The 89th Annusal Oscar Award nominations announced this morning!

And look at that! “Arrival” has been nominated for 8 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay.

I am thrilled by this. “Arrival” is an adaptation of Story of Your Life, a 1998 short story by Ted Chiang. I highly recommend you read it. When Chiang announced that the movie would star Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, and Forest Whitaker, I knew it would be good. Those actors choose solid projects. And when my wife and I left the theater upon viewing “Arrival,” I told her it was Best Picture quality.

I couldn’t be happier about that. “Arrival” is the latest in a string of award-worthy SF movies in recent years. “Gravity.” “Her.” “The Martian.” “Mad Max: Fury Road.” And even “Hidden Figures” — with its fantastic cast, powerful story, and setting within NASA and space — is up for Best Picture too. It is safe to say that Hollywood is beginning to understand SF again.

Not all is right with the world though. The Academy snubbed Amy Adams for Best Actress this year. She is the heart of the movie, a broken woman who is called upon to communicate and ultimately mend relations with aliens. It is through her eyes that “Arrival” arrives and, without her and the performance she delivered, “Arrival” would have lost the power of its gut-wrenching, moving-ending twist.

That said, those 8 nominations matter. Especially to our SF community. After all, when quality movies are produced and those movies win awards and make money, studio executives take note — and hopefully greenlight more SF projects.

Here is a list of movies up for the Best Picture Oscar:

BEST PICTURE

• “Arrival”
• “Fences”
• “Hacksaw Ridge”
• “Hell or High Water”
• “Hidden Figures”
• “La La Land”
• “Lion”
• “Manchester by the Sea”
• “Moonlight”

“Arrival” was also nominated in the following categories: Best Director, Best Writing Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Sound Editing, Best Production Design, and Best Sound Mixing.

To view an entire list of this year’s nominations, click here. Winners will be announced February 26.

And don’t forget to read Stories of Your Life & Others by Ted Chiang!

Good luck, “Arrival!”