Meanwhile the biggest movie in film history, Stars Wars: The Force Awakens managed to nab 5 nominations but failed to receive one for Best Picture.
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EDDIE Redmayne has been nominated for his second consecutive best actor Oscar.
His competition includes fellow Globe victor Matt Damon for “The Martian”, Michael Fassbender for “Steve Jobs”, Emmy favorite Bryan Cranston for “Trumbo” and last year’s Best Actor victor Eddie Redmayne, nominated this year for “The Danish Girl”. Jennifer Jason Leigh picked up a (deserved) supporting actress nomination, and Ennio Morricone’s score and Robert Richardson’s cinematography were honored, but not being nominated for best picture, director, or original screenplay?
On the other hand, though “The Martian” did well – earning nominations for best picture and best actor – Ridley Scott was left off the directors’ list.
Her co-star in the film, Mark Ruffalo, was recognized in the supporting actor category, along with Christian Bale for “The Big Short”, Tom Hardy for “The Revenant”, Mark Rylance for “Bridge of Spies” and Sylvester Stallone for “Creed”.
Should the Mexican director win next month, he will be joining just two other directors – Joseph Mankiewicz and John Ford – who won the award for two consecutive years. Although the Academy, now overseen by its first black president, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, has started to broaden its voting membership, it will take a while before it’s no longer overwhelmingly white and male.
Some 6,000 members of the Academy, all of them who work in the film industry, voted for the films, actors and directors that will be vying for an Oscar on February 28.
This is the point at which the Oscar Best Picture normally sets up as a two-horse race: Birdman or Boyhood?
Another critically acclaimed film was Straight Outta Compton, which received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay, but ignored for every other category it should’ve been in. It’s not surprising that it won a nomination in an acting category, but it was sort of unclear who would be nominated.
These nominations should put to rest, for now at least, the traditional knock against the Academy that it favours art house films over blockbusters.
Oscar voters, of course, have never equated popularity with quality (Paramount’s “Daddy’s Home” has made about $116 million already), but it was still a bit surprising to see so much Academy love for a film whose dark subject matter may be a hard sell. I’m particularly glad that one nomination is for the extraordinary Lenny Abrahamson for best director.
Best known for comedies like Talladega Nights and Stepbrothers, Adam McKay didn’t seem like the obvious director to adapt The Big Short, Michael Lewis’ 2009 book about the investors who saw the big housing market crash coming.
The Oscar nominees for supporting actress have been announced in Beverly Hills, California.
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“The crew is responsible for making this movie, and I’m glad they’re being recognized in this way”. Its first original feature, Cary Fukunaga’s West African child war film “Beasts of No Nation”, was shut out.
