To celebrate Oscar week, Fandango conducted a poll of over 8,000 moviegoers to see who the public would pick to win the top Academy Awards, and it turns out that they would give the Best Picture Oscar to “Hidden Figures” over the heavy favorite, “La La Land.”
It was a close race between the two hit films, with “Figures” just edging out the win with 26 percent of the vote to “La La Land”‘s 25 percent. “Arrival” came in a distant third with 13 percent. “La La Land” and “Hidden Figures” have been far and away the biggest box office successes among this year’s field, racking up a worldwide gross of $340 million and $166 million, respectively.
The public is more in line with how handicappers expect the Academy to vote in other categories. Damien Chazelle won the Best Director poll with 35 percent, while Denzel Washington and Emma Stone were heavily picked to win the lead acting Oscars with over a third of the vote in their respective categories.
But while Mahershala Ali and Viola Davis are considered shoo-ins to win in the supporting categories, the public poll is much more split. Jeff Bridges won Fandango’s poll for the Best Supporting Actor race with 29 percent of the vote. Ali came in second with 27 percent, while Dev Patel came in third with 21 percent.
Davis came in first in the Best Supporting Actress poll with 38 percent, but Octavia Spencer came in a close second with 35 percent. Just another sign of how popular “Hidden Figures” is with audiences.
And while “La La Land” is expected to win Best Original Song with “City of Stars,” the public would much rather see the award go to “Moana” for the song “How Far I’ll Go.” The soaring Disney song got 37% of the vote, thanks likely to the popularity of the man who wrote the song: “Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda. If “Moana” pulls off the upset, Miranda will join the likes of Rita Moreno, Whoopi Goldberg, and Mel Brooks in the elite club of artists who have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony.
Read the full results of the poll below:
BEST PICTURE:
Hidden Figures 26%
La La Land 25%
Arrival 13%
Hacksaw Ridge 10%
Moonlight 10%
Fences 5%
Manchester by the Sea 5%
Hell or High Water 3%
Lion 3%
BEST DIRECTOR:
Damien Chazelle (La La Land) 35%
Mel Gibson (Hacksaw Ridge) 22%
Denis Villeneuve (Arrival) 20%
Barry Jenkins (Moonlight) 15%
Kenneth Lonergan (Manchester by the Sea) 8%
BEST ACTOR:
Denzel Washington (Fences) 34%
Ryan Gosling (La La Land) 24%
Andrew Garfield (Hacksaw Ridge) 19%
Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea) 15%
Viggo Mortensen (Captain Fantastic) 8%
BEST ACTRESS:
Emma Stone (La La Land) 44%
Natalie Portman (Jackie) 26%
Ruth Negga (Loving) 13%
Meryl Streep (Florence Foster Jenkins) 13%
Isabelle Huppert (Elle) 4%
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:
Jeff Bridges (Hell or High Water) 29%
Mahershala Ali (Moonlight) 27%
Dev Patel (Lion) 21%
Michael Shannon (Nocturnal Animals) 12%
Lucas Hedges (Manchester by the Sea) 11%
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
Viola Davis (Fences) 38%
Octavia Spencer (Hidden Figures) 35%
Michelle Williams (Manchester by the Sea) 10%
Nicole Kidman (Lion) 10%
Naomie Harris (Moonlight) 7%
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE:
Zootopia 48%
Moana 28%
Kubo and the Two Strings 21%
The Red Turtle 2%
My Life as a Zucchini 1%
BEST ORIGINAL SONG:
“How Far I’ll Go” (Moana) 37%
“Can’t Stop the Feeling” (Trolls) 31%
“City of Stars” (La La Land) 18%
“Audition (The Fools Who Dream)” (La La Land) 10%
“The Empty Chair” (Jim: The James Foley Story) 4%