The film, by Tom Hooper (who won best director in 2011 for “The King’s Speech”), epitomizes the kind of historical import, sensitivity and careful good taste – graced by a whiff of present-day topicality – that often defines the classic Academy Award contender, more derisively known as “Oscar bait”.
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“The Revenant”, the 20th Century Fox frontier revenge tale featuring Leonardo DiCaprio, was nominated for a dozen Academy Awards, including for best picture, leading the pack in the annual race for Hollywood’s highest honors.
In an age that values both diversity and transparency, you have to wonder how long the movie industry can remain this ignorant of the world around it. Hollywood now earns 70 cents of every box-office dollar outside of the so-called domestic market (Canada and the United States). For the second straight time, there are no people of color in any of the acting categories, and many found it puzzling that the Academy filled only eight of ten slots for Best Picture. Cheryl Boone Isaacs, the President of the Academy, admitted she is disappointed in the lack of diversity and stressed that the Academy is pushing for change. No best actor nomination for Johnny Depp in “Black Mass”, for those keeping score in Boston.
“What is important is that this entire conversation of diversity is here and that we are talking about it”, said Isaacs.
Sylvester Stallone (“Creed“), Mark Rylance (“Bridge of Spies”), Mark Ruffalo (“Spotlight”), Christian Bale (“The Big Short”) and Tom Hardy (“The Revenant”) will be vying for the Actor in a Supporting Role trophy.
“That’s a huge success”, Berloff said, “and I hope we can really take the time to celebrate”.
On Thursday, when the Oscars nominations were announced, the film didn’t just receive nods for sound mixing, sound editing, visual effects, costume design, and production design – the more expected technical categories – but it also landed the most prestigious two categories, best directing and best picture. “Room”, a small-scale drama of captivity and mother love, also received unexpected affection from Academy members, being nominated for best picture, director (Lenny Abrahamson), actress (Brie Larson), and adapted screenplay. As well as receiving his first nomination for best director, he is also a nominee for best picture as one of the producers of Fury Road.
“It was thrilling”, said McKay, who made a pre-dawn party to watch the nominations.
One of the biggest movies in history came away with five nominations. “Star Wars” may have set a domestic box office record with $822 million and counting, but “Room”, with a minuscule $5.2 million to its name, was the bigger Oscar force.
Last year, only two best picture nominees were released under the main banner of a major studio: Warner Bros.’s Clint Eastwood-directed war film “American Sniper” and the Paramount civil rights drama “Selma”.
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This photo provided by Netflix shows, Idris Elba in the Netflix original film, “Beasts of No Nation”. The odds of an Inarritu repeat, though, are against him.
