As we Oscar watchers frequently like to ask on nomination morning: Who knew? Regarding this year’s contenders, who knew that category fraud would be so successful? Who knew that the lesbian romance Carol would be so well-liked – just not well-liked enough? Who knew this would be the second year in a row with acting races populated exclusively by white people? Who knew that Lady Gaga would receive as many nominations as Ridley Scott?
And who knew that The Revenant would make quite this big a splash? When the first nominations were announced at 5:30 a.m. Pacific, with Ang Lee and Guillermo Del Toro citing the contenders in 11 of the 24 categories, two titles were mentioned over and over: Mad Max: Fury Road and The Revenant, which wasn’t surprising considering the tech categories Lee and Del Toro were assigned to cover. But after the directors left the stage and were replaced, for the remainder of the announcement, by Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs and actor John Krasinski (I love him and all, but ... John Krasinski?!), I began hearing this weird, high-pitched whistle in my head. I was pretty tired, so I could be mistaken, but it sounded an awful lot like “Swee-e-e-e-p ... swee-e-e-e-e-e-p ... !”
The first category that Isaacs and Krasinski attended to was Best Supporting Actor, and it was a moderate surprise, if a most deserved one, when The Revenant’s Tom Hardy was cited. (Like fellow nominees Charlotte Rampling for 45 Years and Mark Ruffalo for Spotlight, Hardy wasn’t previously recognized by either the Golden Globes or Screen Actors Guild [SAG] Awards – though the adorably predictive Critics Choice Award voters did find room for all three. Way to go, CCA! You may be depressingly hopeless Academy suck-ups, but your legacy remains intact!) When Isaacs revealed, however, that The Revenant was also up for Best Production Design – and in place of such design-heavy titles as Carol, Crimson Peak, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens – it was clear that something awfully big was brewing. Its Costume Design nod was one thing, as all those fur coats were admittedly impressive, but Production Design? Doesn’t, like, 98 percent of the movie take place in the great outdoors?
This might just be me being snippy because I’m not crazy about Alejandro González Iñárritu’s revenge thriller, but still, 12 total nominations – including its widely expected ones for Picture, Director, and Leonardo DiCaprio – is a helluva haul. Only 11 movies in history have received more, and The Revenant's original score would certainly have earned a nod, too, if the music branch didn’t declare it ineligible for the treasonous crime of having three individual composers. (Seriously, that branch is hi-lar-ious.) Mad Max: Fury Road hardly had a shabby morning. With 10 nominations, all of them in categories The Revenant is also contending in, it was runner-up for most nods this year – and can we just take a moment to recognize how happily insane that news is? A year ago, would anyone have imagined the Academy capable of citing an ultra-violent sequel to a 30-years-dead post-apocalyptic franchise for its biggest prizes?!
Yet the story of the morning remains The Revenant ... though Heaven knows there are others. I, for one, am already dreading the (not unsupportable) online vitriol that’s sure to spread regarding the second-annual all-Caucasian acting races. Like his character, Creed’s Michael B. Jordan was always an underdog, and it was pretty clear that Concussion’s Will Smith would have to content himself with his Golden Globe recognition. But no Supporting Actor nomination for Beasts of No Nation’s Globe- and SAG-cited Idris Elba? That may be less of a diss toward Elba than to Netflix for its decision to stream the film the same day it landed in a fistful of theaters, but still ... . (Look at that, CCA! You forecast that snub, too!) And for added lack of diversity, even though its SAG and Producers Guild recognition was making it feel like a legitimate possibility, the N.W.A. bio-pic Straight Outta Compton didn’t crack the Best Picture lineup. Nor did it get nominated for anything except Original Screenplay, making this the 15th year in a row in which the writers’ branch acknowledged a movie that received no other nominations. But congrats to the four authors cited for Compton’s script, at least. Is this the place where I mention that all four of them are white?
Speaking of unexpected developments, a big shocker among the Best Director nominees was that The Martian’s Ridley Scott wasn’t among them, despite the sci-fi thriller’s seven other nods and the 78-year-old helmer looking like the potential recipient of a deserved and overdue career prize. (At least, as one of the Best Picture nominee’s producers, he did get a nod somewhere.) The bigger shocker might have been that he was replaced on the lineup not by a likely suspect such as Carol’s Todd Haynes, but by Room’s Lenny Abrahamson, whose intimate drama seemed far too small-scale for such acknowledgment. It was a major victory both for Abrahamson and for Room, which also netted an expected nod for lead Brie Larson and far shakier nods for Best Picture and Emma Donoghue’s screenplay. I’m kind of iffy on the film myself, but if this recognition gets more people to check out Abrahamson’s beautifully acted outing despite its potentially alienating subject matter, it’s all to the good.
Hopefully, the six nominations for Carol will ensure a few more butts in seats, too, even if Best Picture and Director aren’t among the categories it’s up for. But I couldn’t be happier that Carol composer Carter Burwell is finally, finally, up for an Original Score Oscar. (Seriously: Fargo! No Country for Old Men! True Grit! Is it Burwell that branch has a problem with, or is it the Coens?) And while Cate Blanchett was always assured a Best Actress nomination, the studio decision to promote Rooney Mara as a Supporting Actress contender – when it’s painfully clear that she’s a co-lead – meant that, if votes for her were split between the two categories, Mara might easily have been left out altogether. She wasn’t, though, and made the supporting lineup alongside The Danish Girl’s Alicia Vikander, another lead incorrectly masquerading as support. Like many, I’m sure, I’d have preferred that Vikander was instead recognized for Ex Machina, but considering she appeared in roughly 957 movies last year alone, at least she got noticed for one of them. (We Ex Machina fans can at least be thrilled that writer/director Alex Garland was nominated for his screenplay, and that the movie’s exquisite yet subtle visual effects were cited – and at the expense of Jurassic World and Avengers: Age of Ultron, no less. Those films’ producers are no doubt weeping into their billions even as I type.)
Like Room and Carol, other small-scale films also fared terrifically well this morning. While Spotlight was always a done deal for Picture and Screenplay recognition, it wasn’t nearly so secure in any other categories, and the investigative-journalism procedural probably did better than anyone wound up predicting: six nominations total, including nods for Film Editing, Thomas McCarthy’s direction, and supporting performers Ruffalo and Rachel McAdams. The Big Short landed exactly the five high-profile nominations that most people were presuming it would – let’s hear it for Best Director nominee Adam “Anchorman” McKay! – and while I hoped it would do much, much better overall, I can’t bitch that my favorite movie of 2015, Brooklyn, at least appears on the Best Picture, Actress, and Adapted Screenplay rosters. As for Bridge of Spies, it’s only a “small-scale” film in comparison to most Spielberg. But it, too, had a more-than-decent showing with six nominations, including one for its screenplay co-written by Joel and Ethan Coen – the sibs’ first nods for a film that wasn’t “a Coen brothers film.” (Take that, music branch!)
A pair of household-name screenwriters received some unwelcome news this morning, as there were no nominations for either Globe-winning Steve Jobs author Aaron Sorkin, which I predicted, or The Hateful Eight auteur Quentin Tarantino, which no one predicted. (Tarantino, though, has to be feeling bullish about his movie’s recognition for Robert Richardson’s “glorious!” 70-millimeter cinematography, 87-year-old Ennio Morricone’s score, and Supporting Actress contender Jennifer Jason Leigh – the first nomination of her long, eccentric, and fabulous career. Rejoice, Fast Times at Ridgemont High fans!) Happily, the Best Animated Feature lineup includes the Pixar masterpiece that deserved to be there (Inside Out) and, just as happily, doesn’t include the dreary bummer that didn’t (The Good Dinosaur). As co-composer of The Hunting Ground’s Best Original Song nominee “’Til It Happens to You,” Lady Gaga is now an Oscar nominee, which isn’t nearly as strange as the news that, for the first time ever, the category is composed of five movies in which Best Original Song is their sole nomination. I’ve asked it before and I’ll ask it again: Why on Earth is this still a category? Would any of us feel the loss if there were no nominations whatsoever for Spectre and Youth and Fifty Shades of Grey?
But I don’t want to wrap up by peeing on those composers’ parades – every Oscar nominee should be allowed one day of snark-free celebration – so let’s end on some notes of positivity! First-time acting nominations for Leigh, Hardy, McAdams, Larson, TV god Bryan Cranston, theatre god Mark Rylance, and 69-year-old screen legend Rampling! First-time directing nominations for George Miller and McCarthy! (We Station Agent and Win Win obsessives salute you, Academy!) Shaun the Sheep Movie for Animated Feature! Amy and What Happened, Miss Simone? for Documentary Feature! (There’s probably no good day to be a deceased genius vocalist, but if there were ... !) Five citations for The Force Awakens, paving the way for the trilogy ender's inevitable 15! A Best Makeup & Hairstyling nod for Sweden’s The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window & Disappeared – easily the Oscar nominee with the best title ever! (I was thisclose to predicting that nomination but didn't, and while my correct guesses are in boldface below – for the record, I did not attempt to guess the shorts – you can also click here to check out my mostly embarrassing 69-of-106 accuracy rate.)
And like the press corps who assembled for this morning’s announcement, who cheered the news like it was the end of a 12-round championship fight, I applaud Sylvester Stallone for deservedly making the Supporting Actor lineup 39 years after he was last nominated for playing Rocky Balboa. Talk about things we couldn’t have predicted a year ago!
Best Picture
The Big Short
Bridge of Spies
Brooklyn
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant
Room
Spotlight
Best Directing
The Big Short, Adam McKay
Mad Max: Fury Road, George Miller
The Revenant, Alejandro González Iñárritu
Room, Lenny Abrahamson
Spotlight, Thomas McCarthy
Best Actress
Cate Blanchett, Carol
Brie Larson, Room
Jennifer Lawrence, Joy
Charlotte Rampling, 45 Years
Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn
Best Actor
Bryan Cranston, Trumbo
Matt Damon, The Martian
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant
Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs
Eddie Redmayne, The Danish Girl
Best Supporting Actress
Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Hateful Eight
Rooney Mara, Carol
Rachel McAdams, Spotlight
Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl
Kate Winslet, Steve Jobs
Best Supporting Actor
Christian Bale, The Big Short
Tom Hardy, The Revenant
Mark Ruffalo, Spotlight
Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies
Sylvester Stallone, Creed
Best Original Screenplay
Bridge of Spies, Matt Charman, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Ex Machina, Alex Garland
Inside Out, Josh Cooley, Ronnie Del Carmen, Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve
Spotlight, Thomas McCarthy, Josh Singer
Straight Outta Compton, Andrea Berloff, Jonathan Herman, S. Leigh Savidge, Alan Wenkus
Best Adapted Screenplay
The Big Short, Adam McKay, Charles Randolph
Brooklyn, Nick Hornby
Carol, Phyllis Nagy
The Martian, Drew Goddard
Room, Emma Donoghue
Best Animated Feature
Anomalisa
Boy & the World
Inside Out
Shaun the Sheep Movie
When Marnie Was There
Best Original Song
“Earned It,” Fifty Shades of Grey
“Manta Ray,” Racing Extinction
“Simple Song #3,” Youth
“’Til It Happens to You,” The Hunting Ground
“Writing’s on the Wall,” Spectre
Best Foreign-Language Film
Embrace of the Serpent, Colombia
Mustang, France
Son of Saul, Hungary
Theeb, Jordan
A War, Denmark
Best Documentary Feature
Amy
Cartel Land
The Look of Silence
What Happened, Miss Simone?
Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom
Best Original Score
Bridge of Spies
Carol
The Hateful Eight
Sicario
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Best Cinematography
Carol
The Hateful Eight
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Revenant
Sicario
Best Film Editing
The Big Short
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Revenant
Spotlight
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Best Production Design
Bridge of Spies
The Danish Girl
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant
Best Costume Design
Carol
Cinderella
The Danish Girl
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Revenant
Best Sound Editing
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant
Sicario
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Best Sound Mixing
Bridge of Spies
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Best Visual Effects
Ex Machina
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Best Makeup & Hairstyling
The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window & Disappeared
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Revenant
Best Documentary Short
Body Team 12
Chau, Beyond the Lines
Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah
A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness
Last Day of Freedom
Best Live-Action Short
Ave Maria
Day One
Everything Will Be Okay (Alles Wird Gut)
Shok
Stutterer
Best Animated Short
Bear Story (Historica de Un Oso)
Prologue
Sanjay’s Super Team
We Can’t Live without Cosmos
World of Tomorrow
Total Number of Nominations
The Revenant – 12
Mad Max: Fury Road – 10
The Martian – 7
Bridge of Spies – 6
Carol – 6
Spotlight – 6
The Big Short – 5
Star Wars: The Force Awakens – 5
The Danish Girl – 4
Room – 4
Brooklyn – 3
The Hateful Eight – 3
Sicario – 3
Ex Machina – 2
Inside Out – 2
Steve Jobs – 2
45 Years – 1
50 Shades of Grey – 1
The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window & Disappeared – 1
Amy – 1
Anomalisa – 1
Boy & the World – 1
Cartel Land – 1
Cinderella – 1
Creed – 1
Embrace of the Serpent – 1
The Hunting Ground – 1
Joy – 1
The Look of Silence – 1
Mustang – 1
Racing Extinction – 1
Shaun the Sheep Movie – 1
Son of Saul – 1
Spectre – 1
Straight Outta Compton – 1
Theeb – 1
Trumbo – 1
A War – 1
What Happened, Miss Simone? – 1
When Marnie Was There – 1
Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom – 1
Youth – 1
