Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

‘La La Land’ Scoops 14 Oscars Nominations

(JTA) — The musical film “La La Land” received 14 Academy Award nominations, including best picture, director, actor and actress.

The songs in the film are written by Jewish composer Justin Hurwitz, who was roommates with director Damien Chazelle at Harvard. The lyrics are written by Benj Pasek, who is Jewish, and Justin Paul. Chazelle’s parents are Catholic, but they enrolled him in Hebrew school for four years when they became dissatisfied with their church Sunday school.

The film won seven Golden Globes — including Best Original Song for “City of Stars — earlier this month.

Some Jewish actors received recognition. Natalie Portman received a best actress nomination nod for her portrayal of former first lady Jacqueline  Kennedy in the film “Jackie,” and Andrew Garfield was nominated for Best Lead Actor for his performance in “Hacksaw Ridge.”

The first spin-off from the Harry Potter film series, “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” which features two Jewish characters, received a nomination  in costume design.

Mel Gibson, who is remembered in the Jewish community for his anti-Semitic tirade during a 2006 traffic stop, was nominated for best director for his film “Hacksaw Ridge.”

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.