'La La Land' and 'Fences' Dominate Nominations At Oscars 2016

Damien Chazelle's musical La La Land and an extensive group of African-American films dominate this year's Oscars. La La Land is nominated for 14 awards while Denzel Washington's Fences and the uplifting African-American mathematician tale Hidden Figures were also nominated for several awards.

The 14 nominations La La Land received matched the record haul of James Cameron's Titanic back in 1997 for the most number of nominations received by a film. La La Land's 14 nominations include best picture, best actor for Ryan Gosling and best director for Damien Chazelle.

Also a record were the six nominations for African-American actors that includes Denzel Washington and Viola Davis for Fences, Mahershala Ali and Naomie Harris for Moonlight, Ruth Negga for Loving and Octavia Spencer for Hidden Figures. Including British-Indian actor Dev Patel of Loving, that's seven actors of color nominated out of 20.

Filmmakers of color were also nominated in different categories. Director Barry Jenkins of Moonlight was nominated in the Best Director Category, making him the fourth-ever African -American director to be nominated for Best Director. Bradford Young, meanwhile, became the first African-American cinematographer to be nominated in the category.

The 2017 Oscars nominations was a far cry from the previous two years of the Oscars nominations. The last two years of the Oscars saw all actors nominated were all white.

The disparity led to widespread outrage all over the film industry. It also led academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs to revamp the academy's membership.

The 2017 Oscars will be aired on Feb. 26. Jimmy Kimmel will host the awards ceremony.