“The Revenant” roared like a bear Thursday morning, topping all films with 12 nominations for the 88th Academy Awards.
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The film will compete in a variety of categories, including Best Film, Best Director for Alejandro G. Iñarritu, Best Actor for Leonardo DiCaprio and Best Supporting actor for Tom Hardy.
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. This year, it went with eight: “The Revenant“, “Mad Max”, “Spotlight“, “The Martian“, “Brooklyn”, “Room“, “The Big Short” and “Bridge of Spies“.
DiCaprio earned his first Oscar nomination at age 22 for the 1993 drama What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?
Will Smith, who stars in football head-injury drama “Concussion“, and Idris Elba from “Beasts of No Nation” were among the black actors who were not nominated.
Screenplay surprise. Aaron Sorkin is an award-season staple who won an Oscar for his screenplay of “The Social Network” and was nominated for “Moneyball”.
Some were outraged that Sylvester Stallone – widely seen as a sentimental favorite – was nominated for best supporting actor for “Creed” instead of Jordan. All 20 acting nominees are white. Damon was joined by Bryan Cranston (“Trumbo“), Leonardo DiCaprio (“The Revenant”), Michael Fassbender (“Steve Jobs“) and Eddie Redmayne (“The Danish Girl”) in that coveted category.
Star Warring. Those loyal to the Resistance might be upset that “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” didn’t get a best picture nomination.
The director of the critically-acclaimed “Straight Outta Compton”, a biopic about the rap group N.W.A, was also snubbed. The Tom McCarthy movie had so many great performances that one nearly doesn’t know where to turn _ it’s a shoo-in to the win Screen Actors Guild ensemble award.
Best-actress nominees include Cate Blanchett for “Carol“, Brie Larson for “Room“, Jennifer Lawrence for “Joy”, Charlotte Rampling for “45 Years” and Saoirse Ronan for “Brooklyn“.
The film’s Mexican-born cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, who won a 2015 Oscar for “Birdman” and a 2014 Oscar for “Gravity”, and sound editor Martin Hernandez have also scored nominations in their respective fields. Many expected a nomination for Ridley Scott to match the seven that his movie, the much-loved “The Martian“, had elsewhere.
Although, Indian film “Court” couldn’t make it to the Best Foreign Language Film category, the movies which are contending in the top five include “Son of Saul”, “Mustang”, “A War”, “Embrace of the Serpent” and “Theeb”. That story line should have a new twist this time, though, when Chris Rock who famously labeled Hollywood “a white industry” hosts the February 28 ceremony.
Other Indian regional films like “Jalam”, “RangiTaranga” and “Nachom-ia Kumpasar”, which were vying for a spot in the Best Original Song and the Best Original Score have also been ousted from the Oscar race.
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“Once again, Todd Haynes has been blanked for Best Director”.
