The announcement of the Oscar nominations Thursday morning was as notable for those who were left off the list as for those who were on it.
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The envelope, please: Here are four things you need to know.
“When I go to (film studio) offices, I see no black folks except for… the security guard, ” director Spike Lee said.
The best original screenplay nomination noted by Reign went to the co-writers of “Compton” – both of whom are white. The miss for “Carol” meant one usual Oscar heavyweight – Harvey Weinstein – won’t have a horse in the best picture race for the first time since 2008. That may be a record for number of years between first and second nominations for acting.
Irony of ironies, the only actor who received a nomination for “Creed” is white. “Tonight, we honor Hollywood’s best and whitest – sorry, brightest”.
Stallone won a Golden Globe on Sunday for his “Creed” performance.
The 25-year-old actress was first nominated in 2011 for best actress for “Winter’s Bone”.
Diversity seems to be the big loser again this year in Hollywood.
The nominees for best actress in a supporting role. Gaga, whose song “Til It Happens to You” from The Hunting Ground is nominated, released a statement on Instagram, writing “This nomination lends a voice to so many victims and their families around the world”.
“We were laughing about that afterwards”, he said. He applied the freewheeling loopiness of his comedies (notably “Anchorman”) to a political subject, proving once more that comedy gets no respect-most significantly, in the absence of any nominations for “Trainwreck”. Every single time, fans clamor for him to win, and this year is no different.
SURPRISE: Tom Hardy, “The Revenant” With 12 nominations, the Academy showed its love for the wilderness epic directed by Alejandro G. Inarritu, but Hardy – who failed to land a SAG or Golden Globe nomination – was still a darkhorse in a crowded supporting actor field. After all, the dude slept in animal carcasses in freezing temps and ate some pretty disgusting stuff for his role as a 19th-century frontiersman out for revenge. “This has been a great year in film, it really has across the board”. The only films to garner top nominations from each of the key guilds – actor, director and producer – are Tom McCarthy’s investigative journalism drama “Spotlight” and Adam McKay’s Michael Lewis adaptation “The Big Short“.
“The audience award changes that – the victor of that prize in Toronto has gone on to be a best-picture Oscar nominee six of the last seven years”, Rich wrote.
In the Best Actor category, never underestimate the Academy’s prostration before British stage acting and genteel British dramas such as “The Danish Girl” (or simply never bet against Eddie Redmayne). Finding room for such acclaimed blockbusters alongside smaller indies was part of the reason the academy expanded the best-picture field to up to 10 nominees.
Most urbanites thought that Straight Outta Compton, the movie about the meteoric rise and spectacular fall of the revolutionary rap group NWA would receive at least a few Oscar nods, one for Jason Mitchell for his wonderful performance as the doomed don of drugs-turned-rap boss Eazy Z and one for either the film itself or the director F. Gary Gray.
“Room” was considered a lock for a best actress nomination for star Brie Larson, though it wasn’t necessarily seen as a strong contender in other categories – but it ended up with a best picture and best director nomination for Lenny Abrahamson.
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Still, give the Force some credit: Composer John Williams received his 50th nomination.
