It’s Oscar time! It’s time to see whose trailers will get that extra spunk with the words “Academy Award x” featured (that x meaning either winner or nominee, soon to be determined).
The nominations have just been revealed, and 2016’s Academy Awards looks to be most certainly interesting. We have some huge surprises this year, akin to the 2012 Academy Awards, and not all of them are bad; Only some.
We have some obvious heavy hitters (Mad Max: Fury Road may as well start spraying gold on themselves and not just chrome), but some films sadly didn’t get all of their glory. These include Inside Out missing out on Best Picture, Charlie Kaufman and Aaron Sorkin for Anomalisa’s and Steve Jobs’ screenplay respectively (Quentin Tarantino will be missing out on that supposed third Oscar the was so keen he’d be getting as Hateful Eight garners some nominations, and none of them are screenplay based), and Carol’s shocking lack of Best Picture or Best Director nominations for Todd Haynes’ poetic work. That last snub is quite difficult to take in, actually, as Carol was easily a great moment of this year’s cinema, and with only eight Best Picture nominees, two more cold have surely fit in, no?
However, we have some big twists that are worth noting. Tom Hardy has been nominated for his fantastic turn in The Revenant, Charlotte Rampling got noticed (deservedly) for her work in 45 Years and the Best Animated Film section got some lovely picks outside of the obvious few (Boy and the World and When Marnie was There). Otherwise, we have our standard nominees that we have expected. Leonardo DiCaprio’s there with his expected final Oscar gold (unless something changes), the difficult Best Actress category of Brie Larson, Cate Blanchett, Saoirse Ronan and Jennifer Lawrence is now terrifyingly real (especially with Rampling tossed into the mix), and the Foreign Language Film category has some familiar names we’ve seen all year (Mustang and Son of Saul).
I also had no idea that Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s last name was pronounced Iyarttitu. He won Oscars last year, and nothing was mentioned even then. I’m glad it took a year to finally clear this up!
One final gripe: Did we need to give 50 Shades of Grey a nomination? Couldn’t we have used that annoying gum commercial jingle from Inside Out as a credible Original Song nomination instead?
We’ll see what happens this year. Best Picture is a bit difficult to gauge at this point in time. We will feature a reaction to the Academy Awards nominations on our film podcast Contra Zoom, and we will have Live in Limbo’s usual Oscar Roundtable for the third year in a row closer to the big day. We will also have predictions listed in the future. For now, we can only do what the scrubs in Mad Max scream: Witness.
Best Picture:
The Big Short
Bridge of Spies
Brooklyn
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant
Room
Spotlight
Directing:
Adam McKay: The Big Short
George Miller: Mad Max: Fury Road
Alejandro G. Iñárritu: The Revenant
Lenny Abrahamson: Room
Tom McCarthy: Spotlight
Actor In A Leading Role:
Bryan Cranston: Trumbo
Matt Damon: The Martian
Leonardo Dicaprio: The Revenant
Michael Fassbender: Steve Jobs
Eddie Redmayne: The Danish Girl
Actress In A Leading Role:
Cate Blanchett: Carol
Brie Larson: Room
Jennifer Lawrence: Joy
Charlotte Rampling: 45 Years
Saoirse Ronan: Brooklyn
Film In A Foreign Language:
Embrace of the Serpect (Columbia)
Mustang (France)
Son of Saul (Hungary)
Theeb (Jordan)
A War (Denmark)
Animated Feature:
Anomalisa
Boy And the World
Inside Out
Shaun the Sheep Movie
When Marnie was There
Documentary Feature:
Amy
Cartel Land
The Look of Silence
What Happened, Miss Simone
Winter On Fire: Ukraines’ Fight For Freedom
Actor In A Supporting Role:
Christian Bale – The Big Short
Tom Hardy – Revenant
Marc Ruffalo – Spotlight
Mark Rylance – Bridge of Spies
Sylvester Stallone – Creed
Actress In A Supporting Role:
Jennifer Jason Leigh – The Hateful Eight
Roony Mara – Carol
Rachel McAdams – Spotlight
Alicia Vikander – The Danish Girl
Kate Winslet – Steve Jobs
Adapted Screenplay:
The Big Short
Brooklyn
Carol
Martian
Room
Original Screenplay:
Bridge Of Spies
Ex Machina
Inside Out
Spotlight
Straight Outta Compton
Cinematography:
Carol
Hateful Eight
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Revenant
Sicario
Visual Effects:
Ex Machina
Mad Max:Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Original Score:
Bridge of Spies
Carol
The Hateful Eight
Sicario
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Best Original Song:
“Earned It”-50 Shades of Grey
“Manta Ray”-Racing Extinction
“Simple Song 3”-Youth
“Til it Happens to You”-The Hunting Ground
“Writing’s on the Wall”-Spectre
Film Editing:
The Big Short
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Revenant
Spotlight
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Production Design:
Bridge Of Spies
The Danish Girl
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant
Costume Design:
Carol
Cinderella
The Danish Girl
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Revenant
Make Up/Hair:
Mad Max: Fury Road
The 100-Year-Old-Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared
The Revenant
Sound Editing:
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant
Sicario
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Sound Mixing:
Bridge Of Spies
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Live Action Short:
Ave Maria
Day One
Everything will be Okay
Shok
Stutterer
Best Animated Short Film:
Bear Story
Prologue
Sanjay’s Super Team
We Can’t Live Without Cosmos
World of Tomorrow
Documentary Short:
Body Team 12
Chau, Beyond The Lines
Claude Lauzmann: Spectres Of The Shoah
A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness
Last Day of Freedom
