I am old enough to remember when Amazon was just a place to buy books without having to drive all the way to Barnes & Noble. We’ve come a long way since those days. On Tuesday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences unveiled the nominations for 89th Academy Awards. And Amazon, the e-commerce site, earned a grand total of seven nods.
Six of the seven nominations were for the highly acclaimed “Manchester by the Sea.” In addition to Best Picture, the Kenneth Lonergan film is also up for Best Original Screenplay and Best Director. The cast has been similarly honored, with Casey Affleck nominated for Best Actor, Michelle Williams up for Best Supporting Actress and Lucas Hedges up for Best Supporting Actor. Earlier this year, Affleck took home the Golden Globe for Best Actor, despite a host of think pieces campaigning against him over dredged-up allegations from his past.
Photo via Amazon
The other Oscar nod Amazon earned this year was for “The Salesman,” a foreign film that I guarantee you haven’t heard of until now. According to Amazon, this is the synopsis:
Forced out of their apartment due to dangerous works on a neighboring building, Emad and Rana move into a new flat in the center of Tehran. An incident linked to the previous tenant will dramatically change the young couple’s life. The Salesman is an Amazon Original Movie.
Could be intriguing, I suppose. Most likely, however, I’ll be continuing my 20-plus year streak of never seeing a film up for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. It hits select theaters January 27 and comes to Amazon Prime Video in the summer. If any reader out there sees it, let me know how it is.
WATCH The Trailer For ‘Manchester By The Sea‘: