La La Land nominated for 14 Oscars, six black actors nominated

Global Business

La La Land nominated for 14 Oscars, six black actors nominated

La La Land is proving to be the big favorite at the Oscars in Hollywood.

The musical – which is heading to China – scooped more nominations Tuesday than any other movie.

And there was a big boost in the number of black actors put forward for awards compared to last year.

CGTN’s Phil Lavelle reports from Los Angeles.

It’s music to La La Land‘s ears — 14 Oscars Nominations. Only two other movies have managed that before.

It’s a story of star-crossed lovers who sing and dance their way across Los Angeles. The old style musical was back in 2017.

Emma Stone was nominated for Best Actress and Ryan Gosling for Best Actor.

La La Land cost $30 million to make with $174 million taken already worldwide. That’s before it even heads to China, and it will, because Lionsgate — which made it — has teamed up with Tencent. It is the largest provider of internet services in China — the operator of WeChat and QQ with more than one-and-a-half billion subscribers. That’s a lot of potential film fans to target.

“I think it’s huge that a film like La La Land which is really a small indie movie is getting a release in China. It’s a big boost to the film’s fortunes, it’s done surprisingly well at the US box office and for it to get any sort of play in China is a very big deal,” Thom Geier, the managing editor of The Wrap, said.

Six black actors are up for awards next month — something ordinarily that wouldn’t be mentioned.

The Oscars So White movement has been a big issue in the last two years — some stars even boycotted the red carpet with accusations of racism.

It was not the case this year. The likes of Denzel Washington and Viola Davis were up for their roles in Fences, and Naomi Harris for Moonlight. The Academy hoped the focus would be on film, not controversy this year. However, much of that focus inevitably fell on this one.

La La Land has been described by one of its stars as a movie for those who like to dream. And this place isn’t short of dreamers – this is LA, a place fueled by people’s dreams.

The movie has already done incredibly well in theaters. The dream of its makers is that it can take all 14 of those Academy Awards. They have a few very long weeks of waiting ahead of them.