Here's This Year's Motley Crew of Oscar Nominees
Featuring a mix of blockbusters and indie releases, plus a whole lot of white people.
Get your bingo cards ready, movie lovers — the Oscar nominations have arrived! This year's contenders are a motley crew, ranging from action blockbusters to little-seen indie flicks and worthy social dramas. And while there aren't many surprises, there are still plenty of great films on the ballot. Let's dive right in, shall we?
Leading the pack with a dozen nominations is the grizzly DiCaprio vehicle The Revenant, although box office favourite Mad Max: Fury Road is hot on its heel with ten. Both scored nods for Best Picture, where they'll compete against current favourite Spotlight as well as The Martian, Room, The Big Short, Brooklyn and Bridge of Spies.
The Best Director race, meanwhile, will come down to Alejandro G. Inarritu for The Revenant, George Miller for Mad Max, Tom McCarthy for Spotlight, Adam McKay for The Big Short and Lenny Abrahamson for Room. Were Innaritu to come out on top, it would mark back-to-back directing wins for the Mexican filmmaker, following his gong for Birdman last year.
Perennial runner-up Leonardo DiCaprio might finally be in with a chance of taking home Best Actor for his work in The Revenant. He'll be competing in the category against last year's winner Eddie Redmayne in The Danish Girl, Matt Damon in The Martian, Bryan Cranston in Trumbo and Michael Fassbender in Steve Jobs. Australia's Cate Blanchett has been nominated for Best Actress for her role in Carol, along with Brie Larson in Room, Jennifer Lawrence in Joy, Charlotte Rampling in 45 Years and Saoirse Ronan in Brooklyn. Worth noting is that, for the second year in a row, no person of colour has been nominated in any of the acting categories.
Other notable omissions include the absence of Star Wars: The Force Awakens in all major categories, although the film has been nominated for a number of technical awards including Best Film Editing and Best Special Effects. Quentin Tarantino missed out on a screenwriting nomination for his racially-charged Western The Hateful Eight, though the film is up for Best Cinematography and Best Original Score, and earned a Best Supporting Actress nomination for Jennifer Jason Leigh.
The 88th Academy Awards will take place next month on February 28, and will be hosted by Chris Rock. For the full list of nominations, go here.
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