Long-time Lions know that wintertime is convention time. And if you are a Lions Pride blog regular, you also know that we like to write about upcoming conferences, but this week, we thought we’d write about another type of convention – the Oscars! After all, the two are very similar, right? Well, maybe we’re stretching a bit – the only true similarity is that they are both gatherings of a large group of people, but we thought it would be fun to mix it up a little.

On Tuesday morning, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced its 2017 nominees. Let’s take a look at a few of the top contenders:

Best Picture

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

Animated Feature Film

Kubo and the Two Strings
Moana
My Life as a Zucchini
The Red Turtle
Zootopia

Documentary (Feature)

Fire at Sea
I Am Not Your Negro
Life, Animated
OJ: Made in America
13th

Actor in a Leading Role

Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea
Andrew Garfield, Hacksaw Ridge
Ryan Gosling, La La Land
Viggo Mortensen, Captain Fantastic
Denzel Washington, Fences 

Actress in a Leading Role

Isabelle Huppert, Elle
Ruth Negga, Loving
Natalie Portman, Jackie
Emma Stone, La La Land
Meryl Street, Florence Foster Jenkins 

You can see the entire list of nominees by clicking here.

How many of the nominated films have you already seen? Which one do you think deserves the coveted Oscar?

If you’ve only seen a couple of the listed films, there’s still time to get prepared for the biggest night in Hollywood. Jimmy Kimmel will present the 89th Annual Academy Awards on February 26, 2017.

Happy Viewing!