Damien Chazelle proud of crew’s recognition

As Damien Chazelle's ‘La La Land’ swept the 89th Academy Awards nominations by becoming the third movie in the Oscars history to bag a record 14 nods, the director described the moment as "surreal". The 32-year-old filmmaker, who wrote and directed the candy-coloured love story, was in Beijing when he learned about the news.

"It's really unbelievable. Just after it was announced, my girlfriend got a text message and told me how many nominations we'd gotten, and I really thought she was just kind of saying what she hoped would happen. It took me so long to believe it I had to ask her literally three times before I actually believed her.

"We're all at this hotel in Beijing to promote the movie, so we quickly ran down the hall to Ryan's room and barged in. He had Emma on Facetime on his phone, so we just kind of screamed in each other's faces for a few minutes," Chazelle said. Chazelle is happy for his film's crew as the director said, "I'm extra delighted that they're getting this kind of spotlight."

When asked about getting record-tying nominations, he said, "It's hard to put into words. The biggest honour of all is that so many people that made this movie come to life have gotten recognised for it. "I'm just beaming with pride for them,” he said.