Oscar nominations: Atlanta-filmed "Hidden Figures" is up for best picture

http://players.brightcove.net/1345087319/rkw6LSiQ_default/index.html?videoId=5268573625001

Atlanta-filmed "Hidden Figures" is up for a best-picture Academy Award and one of its stars, Octavia Spencer, picked up a best supporting actress nomination for her role in the movie, based on the book by Margot Lee Shetterly.

"Hidden Figures" also is up for best adapted screenplay. The full list of nominations is below.

PHOTOS: Much greater diversity in this year's slate of nominees

PAST COVERAGE: How "Hidden Figures" took shape

Explore That awkward moment when Jenna Bush mixed up "Hidden Figures" and "Fences"

Explore Pharrell Williams' gracious note of forgiveness after Jenna Bush's "Hidden Fences" goof

In a recent interview with the AJC, Atlanta recording artist and actress Janelle Monae recalled how thrilled she was with the script - but how unfamiliar she was with the story. The character she was reading for, Mary Jackson, was complex and compelling. A skilled mathematician and aerospace engineer, Jackson worked alongside her equally brilliant friends, Katherine Johnson and Dorothy Vaughan, who, like other African-American women in the 1960s, were employed in a segregated wing of NASA as the United States raced to catch up with the Soviet Union's outer space ambitions.

“When I was reading the script, I was just excited that someone was portraying an African-American woman in a different light — not just a maid,” Monae said. She paused for a second and added, “I thought it was fiction.”

The movie is set in Hampton, Va., but was filmed in metro Atlanta, at locations including downtown Canton, East Point and the Morehouse College campus.

“Our family grew up in Hampton,” said Shetterly. “We knew a lot of the people in the community who worked at NASA. It was sort of no big deal. In Hampton, there is NASA, there are the shipyards, the military. It was just kind of a normal thing that a lot of those people were African-American, and a lot were women, and some were both.”

Shetterly studied finance at the University of Virginia and worked on Wall Street for a while before transitioning to various internet media projects. She and her husband were living in Mexico, where they ran an English language magazine, when the idea for the book blossomed during a trip back home several years ago. Talk turned to the "computers," as the women were known back then, whose meticulous calculations were vital in sending astronaut John Glenn, who died in early December at age 95, into orbit.

“How did I not know about this?” Shetterly recalled wondering. “My mom was like, ‘Hey, let’s call up Katherine Johnson and go over to her house.’ That’s where I heard the name Dorothy Vaughan. (Johnson) said she was the smartest person she ever met. I was like, I need to check out this Dorothy Vaughan, whose name I’d never heard.”

The book and movie projects took off at a joint gallop ending with today's Oscar nomination (and perhaps a trophy next month? Stay tuned).

Other Atlanta connections in this year's crop of nominees: "Sully," the movie about heroic pilot Sully Sullenberger starring Tom Hanks and directed by Clint Eastwood, was nominated for sound editing; and "Passengers," the sci-fi romance with Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt, was nominated for production design and best original score.

This year's slate of nominees is far more diverse than the past two years' when #OscarsSoWhite trended to reflect the all-white actor/actress nominations. Viola Davis earned a best supporting actress nomination for "Fences" (she won a Golden Globe in the same category) and Naomie Harris picked up the same nomination for "Moonlight." Mahershala Ali and Dev Patel each picked up a supporting actor nod - for "Moonlight" and "Lion" - and Denzel Washington earned a best actor nomination for "Fences." Ruth Negga earned a best actress nod for "Loving." "Moonlight" director Barry Jenkins was nominated for best director.

And "Fences" and "Moonlight," which like "Hidden Figures" stars mostly African American casts, are also up for best picture.

Jimmy Kimmel hosts the Oscars on Feb. 26.

PAST COVERAGE

Explore Critics blast lack of diversity among Oscar nominations

Explore Chris Rock: “You’re damn right” Hollywood is racist

Explore Whoopi Goldberg called for year-long study of Oscars diversity

"We're proud to welcome these new members to the Academy, and know they view this as an opportunity and not just an invitation, a mission and not just a membership," said Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs at the time. "This class continues our long-term commitment to welcoming extraordinary talent reflective of those working in film today. We encourage the larger creative community to open its doors wider, and create opportunities for anyone interested in working in this incredible and storied industry."

FULL LIST OF 2017 NOMINATIONS