Precursor: 21st Satellite Awards Nominations (2016)

La La Land had a tremendous day with an astounding 13 nominations. The next film down on the list was Hacksaw Ridge, which needed some measure of recognition from the precursors to remain relevant. Also helped by these nominations: Hidden Figures, a film that didn’t seem on many radars until it was pulled back to get a limited release for the 2016 Oscar season. These 6 citations give it some measure of bragging rights.

The problem for these films is that the Satellite Awards are the black sheep of the precursor family. Constantly altering their announcement dates you can find on their website (this is at least the second time that they’ve announced earlier than their announced revelation date), organizing their press release in a seemingly random order rather than alphabetical, featuring countless typos throughout the document, and overstuffing each category. All of these things don’t reflect well on the organization, which seems about as disorganized as you can get. That they are frequently and fairly compared to their glitzier counterparts at the Golden Globes, I wouldn’t put too much stock in these nominations. That is especially true considering how likely it is they didn’t see everything that releases late in the year, or insufficient numbers of their members did.

Nominations Tallies

(13) La La Land
(9) Hacksaw Ridge
(7) The Jungle Book, Manchester by the Sea, Moonlight
(6) Hidden Figures
(5) Jackie, Lion
(4) Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, Captain Fantastic, Fences
(3) Hell or High Water, Loving, Nocturnal Animals, Sully

The Nominations

Best Picture

Captain Fantastic
Fences
Hacksaw Ridge
Hell or High Water
Hidden Figures
Jackie
La La Land
Lion
Loving
Manchester by the Sea
Moonlight
Nocturnal Animals

Best Animated or Mixed Media

Findnig Dory
The Jungle Book
Kubo and the Two Strings
Miss Hokusai
Moana
My Life As a Zucchini
The Red Turtle
Trolls
Your Name.
Zootopia

Best Director

Damien Chazelle – La La Land
Tom Ford – Nocturnal Animals
Mel Gibson – Hacksaw Ridge
Barry Jenkins – Moonlight
Pablo Larrain – Jackie
Kenneth Lonergan – Manchester by the Sea
Denzel Washington – Fences

Best Actor

Casey Affleck – Manchester by the Sea
Joel Edgerton – Loving
Andrew Garfield – Hacksaw Ridge
Joseph Gordon-Levitt – Snowden
Ryan Gosling – La La Land
Tom Hanks – Sully
Viggo Mortensen – Captain Fantastic
Denzel Washington – Fences

Best Actress

Amy Adams – Nocturnal Animals
Annette Bening – 20th Century Women
Taraji P. Henson – Hidden Figures
Isabelle Huppert – Elle
Ruth Negga – Loving
Natalie Portman – Jackie
Emma Stone – La La Land
Meryl Streep – Florence Foster Jenkins

Best Supporting Actor

Mahershala Ali – Moonlight
Jeff Bridges – Hell or High Water
Hugh Grant – Florence Foster Jenkins
Lucas Hedges – Manchester by the Sea
Eddie Murphy – Mr. Church
Dev Patel – Lion

Best Supporting Actress

Viola Davis – Fences
Naomie Harris – Moonlight
Nicole Kidman – Lion
Helen Mirren – Eye in the Sky
Octavia Spencer – Hidden Figures
Michelle Williams – Manchester by the Sea

Best Original Screenplay

Captain Fantastic
Hell or High Water
La La Land
The Lobster
Manchester by the Sea
Moonlight

Best Adapted Screenplay

Hacksaw Ridge
Hidden Figures
The Jungle Books
Lion
Snowden
Sully

Best Original Score

The BFG
Hacksaw Ridge
Hidden Figures
The Jungle Book
La La Land
Manchester by the Sea

Best Original Song

“Audition” – La La Land
“Can’t Stop the Feeling” – Trolls
“City of Stars” – La La Land
“Dancing with Your Shadow” – Po
“I’m Still Here” – Miss Sloane
“Running” – Hidden Figures