Arrival (2016)

Academy Awards, USA 2017

Won Oscar	Best Achievement in Sound Editing Sylvain Bellemare
Nominated Oscar	Best Motion Picture of the Year Shawn Levy Dan Levine Aaron Ryder David Linde
	Best Achievement in Directing Denis Villeneuve
	Best Adapted Screenplay Eric Heisserer
	Best Achievement in Cinematography Bradford Young
	Best Achievement in Film Editing Joe Walker
	Best Achievement in Sound Mixing Bernard Gariépy Strobl Claude La Haye
	Best Achievement in Production Design Patrice Vermette (production design) Paul Hotte (set decoration)

Paramount Pictures
Directed by Denis Villeneuve
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(Blu-ray, Paramount)

Giant alien spaceships park themselves in 12 locations across the globe. In Montana, the US military enlists a linguist and a physicist to make contact with them. Inside the ship, the giant creatures, nicknamed hectapods because they have seven legs, display complicated patterns on the barrier separating them from the humans. Amy Adams, the linguist, eventually is able to decipher them, but a misunderstanding over one word, "weapon" versus "tool", sends the military into a panic, including the Chinese who issue an ultimatum to the aliens. The "tool" ends up being their language, which allows those who can understand it to travel in time. Amy does this via flashbacks, and flashforwards, which gives her the information necessary to convince the military not to attack, but also some unwanted personal information which threatens to change her life. It's this last bit that requires a stretch for the viewer, and threatens to undermine via melodramatics the more intriguing sci-fi angle. Score by Johan Johannsson adds immensely to the mood.