Inasmuch as both Rooney Mara and Alicia Vikander arguably had lead roles in “Carol” and “The Danish Girl” respectively, their inclusion in the supporting-actress category – along with Jennifer Jason Leigh (“The Hateful Eight”), Rachel McAdams (“Spotlight”) and Kate Winslet (“Steve Jobs”) – might be considered Oscar politics in action.
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Cheryl Boone Isaacs, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, has responded to the controversy surrounding this year’s all-white Oscar nominations and confessed to being disappointed about the lack of diversity.
Leading the Australian contingent is George Miller, nominated for directing and best picture for “Mad Max: Fury Road”. Spotlight seemed the clear favourite a week ago, yet a lack of BAFTA nomination for director Tom McCarthy and the Golden Globe for Best Drama going to The Revenant last Sunday has weakened its chances.
Leonardo DiCaprio has spoken of his delight at being nominated for best actor at the 2016 Oscars for his performance in revenge western The Revenant. Coogler was not included in the best director nominations, but Sylvester Stallone, who reprised a role from the Rocky film franchise in “Creed“, received a best supporting actor nomination.
DiCaprio has missed out on an Oscar four times in the past.
Jordan were ignored for highly praised performances in “Creed”.
But Isaacs, who is black, added that the Oscar nominations are part of a much broader conversation in the entertainment industry about diversity – and that change would happen, albeit slowly. This year a new contender has emerged in “Anomalisa”, a realistic stop-motion feature from Charlie Kaufman, the mind behind “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”, “Being John Malkovich” and “Adaptation”.
The nomination for Pixar (which also landed a best screenplay nod for “Inside Out”) restores its almost unblemished record of Oscar nominations, broken only by 2011’s “Cars 2” and 2013’s “Monsters University”. Perhaps one of 2015’s handful of blockbuster hits, like “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” or “Inside Out”, would join the parade of low-budget indie films to contend for one of the top spots. It instead scored five technical nods for editing, score, visual effects, sound mixing and sound editing.
“This film is very important to me, and is even more important to journalism”. Maybe “Straight Outta Compton”, another solid studio hit, would win honors for a rare look at contemporary African-American culture. While it was always expected to do well, I doubt anyone could have predicted its eventual 12 nomination haul.
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Hardy was more modest about his nomination.
