With 8 Oscar Noms, "Arrival" a Rare Sci-Fi Best Picture Contender

Nabbing a best picture nomination January 23, Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival joined the short list of science-fiction films that have been nominated for the film industry’s top prize.

Reports Variety, previous to the Academy’s expansion of the category in 2009, sci-fi nominees were a rarity. The only two that come to mind are E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial in 1982 and Star Wars in 1979.

With eight, Arrival earned the second-highest number of nominations, clinching nods for director, adapted screenplay, cinematography, sound editing, sound mixing, production design, and editing — in addition to best picture.

"Arrival" Gets Nine British Academy Award Nominations

Columbia Pictures' provocative science-fiction thriller Arrival continues its illustrious awards season run as the Denis Villeneuve film has just scored nine British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director.

It also landed Best Adapted Screenplay nod for screenwriter Eric Heisserer and Best Actress for lead star Amy Adams.

Rounding out the categories Arrival got nominated for are Music, Cinematography, Editing, Sound and Special Visual Effects. The winners will be known on February 12, 2017.

"Sing" Vies for Best Animated Motion Picture, Original Song at Golden Globes

Sing, the new musical comedy from Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment, is up for two major honors at the 2016 Golden Globe Awards happening on January 10, 2017.

The critically acclaimed and box-office smash film is vying for Best Motion Picture - Animated and Best Original Song with Stevie Wonder's “Faith.”

(Watch the lyric music video of “Faith” at http://youtu.be/q6MblFLHi1E.)

Reacting to the double nominations, Illumination founder and Sing producer Chris Meledandri said, “From Santa Monica to Paris, the entire Illumination team is overjoyed. On behalf of my producing partner Janet Healy and our exceptionally talented writer director Garth Jennings as well as everyone at Illumination Mac Guff and our partners at Universal, I want to thank the HFPA for recognizing the work of all of the artists who created SING as well as the legend Stevie Wonder for giving us ‘Faith.’”