Oscars promises more diversity this year

Los Angeles

ALL eyes will be on Hollywood on Tuesday as the list of nominees for this year's Oscars is unveiled with critical darlings La La Land, Moonlight and Manchester by the Sea set to fare well.

But beyond the suspense surrounding the batch of nominees, the announcement is also expected to address the long-running #OscarsSoWhite controversy that cast a pall over last year's awards ceremony because of its lack of diversity.

The nominated films, actors and filmmakers will be unveiled at a pre-dawn announcement which for the first time will be streamed online.

Industry watchers are predicting that Damien Chazelle's whimsical, romantic musical La La Land - buoyed by a record seven Golden Globe awards earlier this month - will also triumph at the Feb 26 Oscars bash with possible golden statuettes for Best Movie, Best Actor and for several other categories.

But the movie starring Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling is facing stiff competition from Moonlight - the coming-of-age tale of a black man in Miami - and Manchester by the Sea, about a depressive loner played by Casey Affleck.

Both films also received nods at the Golden Globes, though far fewer than the seven to La La Land. Other frontrunners for Best Picture are Denis Villeneuve's sci-fi thriller Arrival; Mel Gibson's bloody WWII movie Hacksaw Ridge; Garth Davis's family drama Lion; and Theodore Melfi's biographical comedy-drama Hidden Figures.

In the lead actor category, Affleck, Gosling and Denzel Washington, who plays an African-American father trying to raise his family in the screen adaptation of the Broadway hit Fences, are leading the pack.

Other contenders are Andrew Garfield, who plays an army medic in Hacksaw Ridge and Viggo Mortensen who plays a father trying to raise his six kids in Captain Fantastic.

The field is also crowded in the Best Actress race, where Stone is expected to vie for an Oscar opposite Natalie Portman, who plays a grieving JFK widow in Jackie; Isabelle Huppert, for her performance in the rape-revenge thriller Elle; Amy Adams, who plays a linguist able to communicate with aliens in Arrival; and Meryl Streep, who stars in the comedy biopic Florence Foster Jenkins. Huppert - often described as France's equivalent of Streep - scooped the Best Actress award at the Golden Globes for her staggering performance in Elle, which also won for Best Foreign Film.

Industry pundits say the 63-year-old could very well walk away with an Oscar next month, becoming one of the rare actresses to win for a foreign language performance. "After a very surprising Golden Globe win earlier this month, we not only expect Isabelle Huppert to receive an Oscar nomination on Tuesday but to be a strong contender to even win in February," said Chris Beachum, managing director of awards prediction website Gold Derby. French actress Marion Cotillard won the award in 2008 for her performance in La Vie en Rose, a biopic about the life of legendary singer Edith Piaf.

The woman behind the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag, April Reign, said although Hollywood has made progress, but it was still too early to cancel the hashtag. "One year does not fix a problem that has been going on for over 80." AFP