– Steven Spielberg, whose “Bridge of Spies” was nominated for best picture on Thursday, has set the record for the most best picture nominations for an individual producer with nine.
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In addition to “The Revenant”, the nominees for best picture are “Spotlight”, “The Big Short”, “Mad Max: Fury Road”, “The Martian”, “Brooklyn”, “Bridge of Spies” and “Room”.
“The Revenant”, leading with 12 nominations, was not a surprise.
Critics found it to be a noticeable snub for the lead actor and director of the film “Creed”, Michael B. Jordan and Ryan Coogler, respectively, who are both African-American. Leonardo DiCaprio and Alejandro Iñárritu picked up best actor and best director nominations for the film, while Matt Damon also received a best actor nomination for his role in The Martian.
Though some fans had hoped for a better showing, the box-office behemoth “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” failed to land a best picture nomination. Yes, Vikander is in the running for Best Supporting Actress for The Danish Girl (her role really should’ve seen her in the Lead Actress category but that’s a discussion for another day) but she was stunning in Ex Machina and it seems an very bad shame to ignore that.
“Carol”, the film about a lesbian relationship in 1950s NY, picked up acting nods for stars Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara but didn’t receive nominations for picture or directing. Redmayne won in this category past year for “The Theory of Everything”.
“There are more nominations for white men named Mark than there are for people of color across all acting categories”, tweeted writer Saladin Ahmed. Social media is trending with Tweets like this one from “The Wrap:” “14 award-worthy performances by non-white actors the academy overlooked #OscarsSoWhite”.
Oscar nominees for Best Supporting Actor are shown in this combination of file photos (L to R) Mark Rylance, Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Sylvester Stallone and Mark Ruffalo.
The Oscars have also faced criticism in recent years for focusing on art-house content over blockbusters.
In terms of the major awards, I think we’ll see a true fight between the biggest movies of previous year.
One of the biggest movies in history came away with five nominations.
The tally also includes six nods for “Bridge of Spies”, which it shared with Walt Disney Co.
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“Shaun the Sheep Movie”: Played in Visalia and now available on home video. Ridley Scott’s sci-fi epic “The Martian” landed 7 nominations, including best picture, but no best director nod for Scott.
