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.

REEL DEAL: Felicity Jones Earns Oscar Best Actress Nom For “THEORY OF EVERYTHING”

British thespian Felicity Jones is one of five Oscar Best Actress nominees this year, and she accomplishes this feat with a magnificent portrayal of real-life character, Jane Hawking, in Universal Pictures' “The Theory of Everything.”

Also starring fellow Academy Award-nominee Eddie Redmayne, the film is an inspiring biopic of renowned astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, who falls deeply in love with fellow Cambridge student, Jane.

To portray Jane Hawking, the filmmakers needed an actress who would face less physical challenges but any number of psychological ones, incarnating the emotions of a pillar of strength.

REEL DEAL: Flight REVIEW

I have never rode a (flying) airplane, but movies showed me how does it feel to fly up in the sky thousands of feet above the ground. I actually feel nervous when things get off the ground, and that's just even with carnival rides, what if something goes haywire while flying in the stratosphere? 


Denzel Washington's movie Flight will bring viewers in a journey up in the heavens and even on the ground which is filled with drama, controversy, conflicts, and even national issues. Flight shares the story of an ill-fated passenger plane which broke down in mid-air and is heading for a free fall. William Whitaker (Denzel) or Whip is the captain of the plane does the unlikely move to invert the plane and made an emergency landing saving a lot of lives. Yet controversy follows after he is accused of drinking alcohol before the flight.

The event leads to a very complicated turn of events and an encounter with unlikely characters which most would be his friends and also his enemies. The movie is made with a lot of human strengths, struggles and weaknesses. Even for non-fliers like me, have felt the nerve wracking feel of falling from the sky and getting in between the pressures of the job and life itself. 

REEL DEAL: Flight SPOTLIGHT

Flight :  Gives Denzel Washington Double Best Actor Nominations

by Emy Abuan

Whip Whitaker (Denzel Washington) wakes before it's time to take off on a new flight, after an evening of drinking and sex with one of his plane's stewardesses, Katerina Marquez (Nadine Velazquez). Still trying to rouse himself from his hangover, his phone rings, and he answers a call from his ex-wife Deana (Garcelle Beauvais). Deana wants to discuss putting their son through a private school, but Whip doesn't want to discuss it at the moment, claiming he'll talk to her about it when he gets back to Atlanta.