Clockwise from top left: Cate Blanchett in “Carol,” the cast of “Spotlight,” Pixar’s “Inside Out” and Leonardo DiCaprio in “The Revenant.” (Images courtesy of The Weinstein Company, AP, Pixar and Twentieth Century Fox.)
Leonardo DiCaprio, Sylvester Stallone and Jennifer Lawrence were among the nominees for the 88th Academy Awards, which were announced Thursday morning.
“The Revenant” topped all films with 12 nominations, including best picture, setting up best director nominee Alejandro Iñárritu for a potential repeat of last year’s “Birdman” success.
Best picture nominee “Mad Max: Fury Road” earned 10 nominations — including a nod for George Miller for best director — while “The Martian” raked in seven. “Spotlight,” “The Big Short,” “Room” and “Bridge of Spies” also pulled in several nods.
In acting categories, many of the same stars who were honored during theGolden Globes on Sunday were nominated, including Brie Larson for “Room,” Matt Damon for “The Martian” and, of course, DiCaprio for “The Revenant.” There has been particular interest in that last potential nominee, given that DiCaprio has never won an Oscar and that movie was so grueling to shoot.
The Oscars ceremony will take place on Feb. 28 and will be broadcast live on ABC at 7 p.m. EST.
The list of nominations for the 87th Academy Awards
Best picture“Spotlight”
“The Big Short”
“Bridge of Spies”
“Brooklyn”
“Mad Max: Fury Road”
“The Martian”
“The Revenant”
“Room”
Immediate reaction: The Academy can nominate up to 10 contenders, which leaves space for some less typical entries. This year, they went with eight options, which means we have the movies we knew we’d see — “The Revenant,” “The Martian,” “Spotlight” — but also some less weighty entries, such as “The Big Short” and “Mad Max: Fury Road.” The one glaring omission (sorry, “Star Wars” fans, it’s not “The Force Awakens”) is “Carol,” which seemed custom-made for awards glory.
Actor in a leading roleBryan Cranston, “Trumbo”
Matt Damon, “The Martian”
Leonardo DiCaprio, “The Revenant”
Michael Fassbender, “Steve Jobs”
Eddie Redmayne, “The Danish Girl”
Immediate reaction: The only name on this list that really matters is Leonardo DiCaprio. Barring some unthinkable fraud (What if he secretly shot the whole movie on a soundstage? Maybe that bison liver was a strawberry jam-covered mushroom?), he has this category locked down.
Actress in a leading roleCate Blanchett, “Carol”
Brie Larson, “Room”
Jennifer Lawrence, “Joy”
Charlotte Rampling, “45 Years”
Saoirse Ronan, “Brooklyn”
Immediate reaction: This shakes out a lot like we would have guessed. Golden Globe winner Larson, arguably the front-runner, is on the list, alongside other sure bets, such as Blanchett and Lawrence. The one mild surprise is Rampling, who was phenomenal in “45 Years” but didn’t get a Golden Globe nomination.
Best directorAlejandro Iñárritu, “The Revenant”
George Miller, “Mad Max: Fury Road”
Tom McCarthy, “Spotlight”
Adam McKay, “The Big Short”
Lenny Abrahamson, “Room”
Immediate reaction: These directors really run the gamut, from Iñárritu and his extreme sport of directing to the staid yet thrilling approach that McCarthy took to “Spotlight.” The most surprising omission is Ridley Scott. The “Martian” director has been nominated multiple times but never won, so this year seemed like the time for the Academy to honor him with a body-of-work Oscar. Instead, Abrahamson and McKay landed on the list, leaving less serious competition for Iñárritu, who has a good shot at winning his second consecutive trophy after last year’s “Birdman.”
Actor in a supporting roleChristian Bale, “The Big Short”
Tom Hardy, “The Revenant”
Mark Ruffalo, “Spotlight”
Mark Rylance, “Bridge of Spies”
Sylvester Stallone, “Creed”
Immediate reaction: This is a strong category with a lot of worthy contenders. Globe winner Stallone has been gaining steam coming into awards season with his emotional return to the character of Rocky Balboa. The biggest surprise of the lot is Tom Hardy; apparently the Academy really liked “The Revenant.” He took the place of some other strong candidates, including Idris Elba from “Beasts of No Nation,” Paul Dano in “Love & Mercy” and Michael Shannon for “99 Homes.”
Actress in a supporting role
Rooney Mara, “Carol”
Jennifer Jason Leigh, “The Hateful Eight”
Alicia Vikander, “The Danish Girl”
Kate Winslet, “Steve Jobs”
Rachel McAdams, “Spotlight”
Immediate reaction: Vikander burst onto the scene this year with a handful of brilliant performances in buzzy movies, and it’s paying off with a nomination here. It wasn’t clear whether she would land on the list for “Ex-Machina” or “The Danish Girl.” It ended up being the latter, which is interesting considering that the role could have easily been seen as a leading performance. The same goes for Rooney Mara, who probably had more screentime than her co-star Cate Blanchett in “Carol” but ended up in the supporting category. But two skilled vets who seemed to be likely nominees — Oscar winners Helen Mirren and Jane Fonda — didn’t make the cut.
Best foreign language film“Son of Saul”
“Mustang”
“A War”
“Embrace of the Serpent”
“Theeb”
Immediate reaction: The Hungarian film “Son of Saul” is the picture to beat here. The gut punch of a movie also won the Golden Globe for its depiction of a Sonderkommando at Auschwitz — a Jewish man who was both a prisoner and a worker, tasked with burning the dead.
Best animated feature film“Inside Out”
“When Marnie Was There”
“Anomalisa”
“Boy and the World”
“Shaun the Sheep Movie”
Immediate reaction: Pixar had two feature films this year, so the assumption was that the studio would end up with two Oscar nominations. That didn’t happen. Awards front-runner “Inside Out” nabbed a nod, but the studio’s slightly less fawned-over “The Good Dinosaur” did not. Instead, the little known “Boy & the World” snuck in. Meanwhile, Charlie Kaufman’s existential puppet show, “Anomalisa,” also got some love.
Best adapted screenplay“Carol”
“The Big Short”
“Brooklyn”
“The Martian”
“Room”
Immediate reaction: Aaron Sorkin took home the Golden Globe for “Steve Jobs” on Sunday, but apparently the Academy wasn’t digging his “impressionistic” take on the Apple founder’s life. Instead, we have a couple of movies that managed to make very complicated subjects palatable for a broad audience: Charles Randolph and Adam McKay used a bathing Margot Robbie to explain the financial crisis in “The Big Short” and Drew Goddard made science a lot less confusing in “The Martian.”
Best original screenplay“Spotlight”
“Bridge of Spies”
“Ex Machina”
“Straight Outta Compton”
“Inside Out”
Immediate reaction: This is an eclectic category. We get one animated entry alongside the science fiction of “Ex Machina” and the true story of “Spotlight.” Meanwhile, this is the only nomination for the thrilling N.W.A biopic “Straight Outta Compton.”
Best original score“The Hateful Eight”
“Sicario”
“Star Wars: The Force Awakens”
“Carol”
“Bridge of Spies”
Immediate reaction: If legendary composer Ennio Morricone wins the Oscar for “The Hateful Eight” like he won the Golden Globe, he may want to find someone else to accept the award on his behalf, because
Quentin Tarantino can’t seem to escape controversy even when it’s in the service of a friend. Meanwhile, Jóhann Jóhannsson gets his second nomination in as many years and — hey look! — “Star Wars” got some love.
Best cinematography
“The Revenant”
“Mad Max: Fury Road”
“Carol”
“Sicario”
“The Hateful Eight”
Immediate reaction: Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki gets his eighth nomination since 1996 for his work on “The Revenant,” a difficult movie to shoot even before you take into account that Lubezki used only natural light. He’s also won the last two consecutive years, for “Gravity” and “Birdman.” You know who else has been nominated a lot? “Sicario” cinematographer Roger Deakins. This is his 13th nomination and, get this: He’s never won. We’d like to believe that the 13th time is the charm since Deakins’s work on “Sicario” is breath-taking. If only Lubezki’s superhuman undertaking on “The Revenant” weren’t so hard to beat…
Best production design“Mad Max: Fury Road”
“Bridge of Spies”
“The Martian”
“The Danish Girl”
“The Revenant”
Immediate reaction: A lot of worthy candidates here. “Mad Max” and “The Martian” certainly utilize some flashy design to create memorable cinematic worlds, but there are also some designers who did more with less, as with “Bridge of Spies.”
Best visual effects“Mad Max: Fury Road”
“Star Wars: The Force Awakens”
“The Revenant”
“The Martian”
“Ex Machina”
Immediate reaction: This is the category that allows massive blockbusters to get some Academy love, and this year that meant “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” made the cut. Interestingly, the bear attack in “The Revenant” was given precedence over Indominus Rex’s fight to the death with a shark-eating dino in “Jurassic World.”
Best original song“Simple Song 3,” “Youth”
“Manta Ray,” “Racing Extinction”
“Writing’s on the Wall,” “Spectre”
“Til it Happens to You,” “The Hunting Ground”
“Earned It,” “Fifty Shades of Grey”
Immediate reaction: This is an eclectic year, with a couple Top 40 contenders — “Writing’s On the Wall” and “Earned It” — going up against the classical “Simple Song 3” and the virtually unknown “Manta Ray” (which, as it turns out, is quite beautiful). Speaking of popular songs, there was no room for “See You Again,” the track that really got the waterworks flowing at the end of “Furious 7.”
Best documentary feature“Amy”
“What Happened, Miss Simone?”
“The Look of Silence”
“Cartel Land”
“Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom”
Immediate reaction: British director Asif Kapadia gets his first nomination for his stirring look at the life and death of singer Amy Winehouse. That movie will duke it out with “The Look of Silence,” Joshua Oppenheimer’s gorgeous, heart-breaking companion piece to “The Act of Killing,” another documentary about Indonesian death squads that was Oscar nominated in 2014. Meanwhile, prolific documentarian Alex Gibney didn’t make the cut for his Scientology expose “Going Clear.”
Best costume design“Carol”
“Cinderella”
“Mad Max: Fury Road”
“The Danish Girl”
“The Revenant”
Immediate reaction: Three-time Oscar winner Sandy Powell is cleaning up this year with two nominations: one for her sumptuous 1920s suits and dresses for “Carol” and the other for her fantastical designs for “Cinderella.” On the other end of the spectrum, the Academy gave some love to “The Revenant” (moccasins, bearskin capes) and the dusty, post-apocalyptic leisurewear of “Mad Max: Fury Road.”
Best makeup and hairstyling“Mad Max: Fury Road”
“The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out a Window and Disappeared”
“The Revenant”
Immediate reaction: It’s going to be hard to compete with the makeup that made Leonardo DiCaprio look like the victim of a gruesome bear attack. It’s interesting that the bombastically titled foreign film “The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out a Window and Disappeared” made the cut above “Black Mass.” Apparently we weren’t the only ones who found the
prosthetics in that movie distracting.
Best live action short film“Ave Maria”
“Shok”
“Day One”
“Stutterer”
“Everything Will Be Okay”
Best animated short film“Sanjay’s Super Team”
“Bear Story”
“World of Tomorrow”
“Prologue”
“We Can’t Live Without Cosmos”
Best documentary short subject“Body Team 12”
“A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness”
“Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah”
“Chau, Beyond the Lines”
“Lasy Day of Freedom”
Best film editing“The Revenant”
“Mad Max: Fury Road”
“Spotlight”
“The Big Short”
“Star Wars: The Force Awakens”
Best sound mixing“The Revenant”
“Star Wars: The Force Awakens”
“Mad Max: Fury Road”
“The Martian”
“Bridge of Spies”
Best sound editing“The Revenant”
“Mad Max: Fury Road”
“The Martian”
“Sicario”
“Star Wars: The Force Awakens”
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