Diversity and 'La La Land' ready for their Oscar close-ups
By JAKE COYLE, Associated Press
Jan 24, 2017 12:34 AM CST
This image released by A24 Films shows Alex Hibbert in a scene from the film, "Moonlight." Nominees for the 89th Academy Awards will be announced on Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2017. (David Bornfriend/A24 via AP)   (Associated Press)

NEW YORK (AP) — After two straight years of all-white acting nominees and an overhauling of the motion picture academy, the Oscars are poised to trend in a different direction Tuesday.

Barry Jenkin's luminous coming-of-age tale "Moonlight," the crowd-pleasing African-American mathematician drama "Hidden Figures" and Denzel Washington's fiery August Wilson adaption "Fences" are set to lead a notably more diverse group of contenders when nominations to the 89th Academy Awards are announced Tuesday morning beginning at 8:18 a.m. EST.

One of the morning's big questions is just how many nominations "La La Land" will land. Damien Chazelle's exuberant love letter to musicals is expected to lead all films and could rival the record 14 nods received by "All About Eve" and "Titanic."

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