With the nomination of Amazon Studios’ Manchester by the Sea for best picture on Tuesday morning, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has officially put streaming services in the Oscar features game.
Amazon has not only scored its first Oscar nominations with Manchester, it has also become the first streaming service to earn a best picture nod.
Manchester received six total nominations, including Kenneth Lonergan for directing and original screenplay, Casey Affleck for lead actor, Lucas Hedges for supporting actor, and Michelle Williams for supporting actress. The Salesman, Iran’s selection in the foreign-language film category — which Amazon is distributing in the United States — also received a nomination, bringing Amazon’s total nominations to seven.
Netflix was first of the streamers to begin buying and producing original films, earning its first Oscar nomination in 2014 for The Square. Since then, all of its Academy Awards nominations have been in the documentary category, even after it entered the feature film fray in 2015 with Beasts of No Nation.
Amazon, meanwhile, made its first awards season run last year with Spike Lee’s Chi-Raq, but an Oscar nomination remained elusive.
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SOURCE: Natalie Jarvey
The Hollywood Reporter
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