Gay drama 'Moonlight' receives 8 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture

The nominees for the 89th annual Academy Awards were announced Tuesday. Moonlight received 8 nominations, including a Best Picture nod.

La La Land earned 14 nominations, tying the musical with Titanic and All About Eve for the greatest number of nominations for a film.

Moonlight and La La Land will compete against Arrival, Fences, Hacksaw Ridge, Hell or High Water, Hidden Figures, Lion and Manchester by the Sea in the Best Picture category.

Damien Chazelle (La La Land) and Barry Jenkins (Moonlight) are also competing for the best director prize.

Based on Tarell Alvin McCraney's play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue, Moonlight, written and directed by Barry Jenkins, follows an African-American man (played by Trevante Rhodes) who struggles to come out gay over three periods of his life while growing up in a rough neighborhood of Miami. Andre Holland, Ashton Sanders and Alex R. Hibbert also star in the film.

Related: GoPride.com interview with Andre Holland