Oscars 2017: Ryan Gosling, Denis Villeneuve are Oscar nominees

Canadians Denis Villeneuve and Ryan Gosling are headed to the Academy Awards, with La La Land, Arrival and Moonlight leading a more inclusive field of Oscars nominees than in recent years.

Contenders for the world's most prominent film awards were announced in Hollywood this morning.La La Land leads overall with 14 nominations, tying the record previously set by Titanic and All About Eve.

Gosling, who is working with Villeneuve on the upcoming Blade Runner sequel, called him this morning, theQuebec filmmaker said.

"Wewanted to congratulate each other," Villeneuvetold reporters in a conference call on Tuesday afternoon.

"This is just joy for us," he added. "We are proud of each other, as friends."

When Villeneuve, currently working in Los Angeles, earned his first Oscar nomination for the French-language drama Incendies (a foreign-language film finalist in 2011), "it was a a huge surprise. It was likeI was a virgin," he said, laughing.

Now, with a few more awards season campaigns under his belt, he's better prepared, but admittedto still being surprised with his nomination.

"You find yourself caught in the maelstrom of this madness, you know. You see yourself starting to believe 'This is possible.'"

Villeneuve'sfirst-contact story Arrival earned eight nods including for best picture and for best director tying with Moonlight, Barry Jenkins's acclaimed gay coming-of-age story.

The best picture nominees are:

• Arrival
• Fences
• Hacksaw Ridge
• Hell orHigh Water
• Hidden Figures
• La La Land
• Lion
• Manchester by the Sea
• Moonlight

London, Ont.-born Gosling, who starsin La La Land as a struggling jazz musician, is nominated for best lead actor alongside:

• Casey Affleck, Manchester By the Sea
• Andrew Garfield, Hacksaw Ridge
• Viggo Mortensen, Captain Fantastic
• Denzel Washington, Fences

La La Land's record-setting nominations include nods for co-star Emma Stone, up for best actress alongside:

• Isabelle Huppert, Elle
• Ruth Negga, Loving
• Natalie Portman, Jackie
• Meryl Streep, Florence Foster Jenkins

Film festival favourite Moonlight, crowd-pleasers Hidden Figuresand Lion and the August Wilson theatre adaptation Fences are among the movies featuring diverse leads and in the running for Oscars this year.

Meanwhile, performers Denzel Washington, Ruth Negga, Dev Patel, Mahershala Ali, Viola Davis, Naomie Harris and Octavia Spencer are all nominees.

Mel Gibson's Second World War dramaHacksaw Ridgeis among the morning'smostsurprisingcontenders. Itearnedsix nominations, including anod for best picture, best actor for star Andrew Garfield andbest director for the controversial filmmaker, who was long shunned for his anti-Semitic tirades, drunk driving arrest and (later dismissed) domestic violence conviction.

More Canadian nominees

The National Film Board of Canada, a regular at the Academy Awards, is once again a contender this time for Montreal-based director Theodore Ushev'sanimated short Blind Vaysha. Rivals in the category include Pear Cider and Cigarettes, directed by Vancouver's Robert Valley, and Piper, directed by Niagara Falls, Ont.'s Alan Barillaro.

Producer Howard Barish, originally from Winnipeg, shares in the documentary feature nomination for 13th, Ava Duvernay'sblistering examination of race and the U.S. criminal justice system.

DisneytaleMoana, a nominee forbestanimatedfeature, includes the work ofKitchener, Ont.'s Chris Williams,oneof its fourdirectors.

• Oscars 2017: Complete list of nominees for the 89thAcademy Awards

Past winners and nominees including actors Brie Larson, Jennifer Hudson,Ken Watanabe and Demian Bichir,writer Dustin Lance Black, director Jason Reitman helped announce the nomineesacross24 categories in a new format this year: through pre-recorded videos.

The 89th Academy Awards take place Feb. 26 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, with late-night host Jimmy Kimmel as MC.The evening will include the acknowledgement of recent Governors Award winners the honorary Oscar prizes to actor Jackie Chan, film editor Anne Coates, casting director Lynn Stalmaster and filmmaker Frederick Wiseman.

More about the 2017 Academy Award nominations:

• Amazon has become the first streaming service recognized in a major Oscar category, sharing in the best picture nod for Manchester by the Sea with fellow distributor Roadside Attractions.
• U.S. President Donald Trump might consider her "overrated," but Meryl Streep earned her record 20th Oscar nominationfor the biographical dramedy Florence Foster Jenkins. A three-time Oscar-winner (for The Iron Lady, Sophie's Choice and Kramer vs. Kramer), Streep is the most nominated actor ever.
• New Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel has his work cut out for him: none of the best-picture nominees areconsidered blockbusters and, in years with low-grossing contenders, that can hurt viewership. Ratings have also been on a decline for the past two years.
• With most categories only fielding five finalists, snubs are inevitable. Some of the prominent performances, filmmakers and movies left off the list this year include: Amy Adams (Arrival), Annette Bening (20th Century Women), Tom Hanks (Sully), Joel Edgerton (Loving), singer and music producer Pharrell Williams (Hidden Figures), Clint Eastwood (director of Sully), Martin Scorsese (director of Silence), Garth Davis (director of Lion) and the animated film Finding Dory.