Or Best Original Song, where the Weeknd got a shout out for his contribution to Fifty Shades of Grey. That’s one of a few curiosities concerning the nominees for the 2016 Academy Awards, announced Thursday morning.
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When it comes to Director and Picture, things start to get interesting.
Subtlety Is Overlooked The Academy Awards have never exactly bent over backwards to champion those films that only come alive when watched closely (so often you hear that voters don’t watch the films at all), but this year’s crop of Best Picture nominees seems louder than ever.
Among the actors and actresses, directors and writers who made the final cut as award nominations were announced on Thursday are at least three people with ties to the region: Sylvester Stallone, Adam McKay and Josh Singer. In addition to “The Revenant”, “Mad Max: Fury Road” and “The Martian”, they were: “The Big Short”, “Bridge of Spies”, “Brooklyn”, “Room” and “Spotlight”. Sly won a Golden Globe for his performance earlier this month.
It will always be argued there are more worthy films and performances than there are slots. The Best Supporting Actor race is a lot closer. Ridley Scott’s sci-fi epic “The Martian” landed 7 nominations, including best picture, but no best director nod for Scott. “This has been a great year in film, it really has across the board”. There weren’t any major surprises in the Best Picture category, which can house anywhere between five and 10 nominees. Stallone is joined by Christian Bale for “The Big Short”, Tom Hardy as Leo’s non-ursine nemesis in “The Revenant“, Mark Ruffalo as one of the intrepid reporters of “Spotlight” and Mark Rylance as a Russian spy at the center of all the Cold War hugger-mugger in “Bridge of Spies”.
With regards to the acting categories, there’s not much competition for the frontrunners. Golden Globe nominee Jane Fonda (“Youth”) was also left behind in a best supporting actress field that includes Jennifer Jason Leigh (“The Hateful Eight”), Rooney Mara (“Carol”), McAdams (“Spotlight”), Alicia Vikander (“The Danish Girl”) and Kate Winslet (“Steve Jobs”). Easily the front-runner in the category, the inventive computer-animated film was joined by the low-budget, stop-motion existential drama “Anomalisa” and by the little-seen “Boy in the World”, “Shaun the Sheep Movie” and “When Marnie Was There”. An artistic masterpiece by most accounts, it’s also a dark and violent film set in the 1800s and features a mostly male cast that doesn’t talk much.
The Academy Rides Shiny and Chrome While the box office numbers might suggest that The Force Awakens was 2015’s most galvanizing blockbuster, the Oscar nominations suggest that history will likely have a very different – and far more unlikely – story to tell.
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African-American comedian Chris Rock will host the 88th annual Oscars on February 28th.
