'The Revenant,' 'Mad Max' Lead Oscars Nominations

Director Alejandro Inarritu’s grueling drama “The Revenant” scored a leading 12 Oscar nominations Wednesday, with George Miller’s apocalyptic “Mad Max: Fury Road” on its heels with 10 nods, with both well ahead of other contenders.

The other best-picture nominees are “The Big Short,” “Bridge of Spies,” “Brooklyn,” “The Martian,” “Room” and “Spotlight.”

While eight films were nominated, there are only five slots for directors. That slate of Oscar hopefuls includes Inarritu and Miller, along with Adam McKay for his real estate-crash drama “The Big Short,” Lenny Abrahamson for “Room,” which is about a mother and young son held captive, and Tom McCarthy for “Spotlight,” the story of the Boston Globe’s investigation into pedophilia by Catholic priests and a coverup by senior clergy.

“The Martian,” which trailed the top two films with seven nominations, picked up a best-actor nomination for Matt Damon as an astronaut stranded alone on Mars. 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. Cranston is a first- time nominee, while Redmayne took home an Oscar last year for “The Theory of Everything.”

Although 10 slots have been available for best picture nominees since the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences changed the rules in 2011, Academy voters selected only eight. One film on many critics’ top 10 lists that saw almost no Oscar love was “Straight Outta Compton,” nominated only for its original screenplay about the roots of revolutionary hip-hop group NWA. The film’s ensemble cast has been nominated for a Screen Actors Guild award, though none of the individual performances were honored by the Guild or the Academy.

In fact, despite an outcry last year about a lack of diversity in the Academy’s choices, all of the nominees in the acting categories this year are white.

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.” At 25, Lawrence, who has one Oscar win to her credit, is the youngest four-time acting nominee. Blanchett is a two- time winner, while newcomer Larson and veteran Rampling are both first-time nominees.

Alicia Vikander picked up a supporting actress nomination for her role as the wife of a transgender pioneer in “The Danish Girl,” though some viewed her as a lead in the film. Other actresses nominated in the supporting category include Jennifer Jason Leigh (“The Hateful Eight”), Rooney Mara (“Carol”), Rachel McAdams (“Spotlight”) and Kate Winslet (“Steve Jobs”).

“Carol,” the tender portrayal of a female photographer who falls in love with a married older woman in the 1950s, boasted six nominations in total, though it failed to pull one for best picture or director Todd Haynes. The screenplay, adapted from Patricia Highsmith’s novel “The Price of Salt,” garnered a nod.

Actors vying for the golden statuette for supporting roles include Christian Bale (“The Big Short”) Tom Hardy (“The Revenant”), Mark Ruffalo (“Spotlight”), Mark Rylance (“Bridge of Spies”) and Sylvester Stallone (“Creed”).

The nominations were announced by directors Guillermo del Toro and Ang Lee, actor John Krasinski, and Cheryl Boone Isaacs, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater on Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills.

Films nominated for best animated feature include writer/director Charlie Kaufman’s downbeat stop-motion drama “Anomalisa,” “Boy and the World,” Disney’s whimsical peek into the mind of a child “Inside Out,” “Shaun the Sheep Movie” and “When Marnie Was There.”

In the original song category, the nominees include “Earned It” (Fifty Shades of Grey”), “Manta Ray” (“Racing Extinction”), “Simple Song #3 (“Youth”), “Til It Happens To You” (“The Hunting Ground”) and “Writing’s On the Wall” (“Spectre”), with music and lyrics by Jimmy Napes and Grammy- winner Sam Smith.

Foreign films selected to compete for Oscar gold are Colombia’s “Embrace of the Serpent,” France’s “Mustang,” Hungary’s “Son of Saul,” Jordan’s “Theeb” and “A War” from Denmark.

The box office juggernaut “Star War: The Force Awakens,” the highest grossing film of all time domestically, received five nominations -- for film editing, original score, sound editing, sound mixing and visual effects. As a sequel, the blockbuster was widely expected not to be nominated for best picture.

John Williams, who scored the film, now boasts the record for most Academy Award nominations of any living person, with 50. Walt Disney was nominated 59 times.

Another record breaker this year is Steven Spielberg, who produced and directed “Bridge of Spies.” The film’s nod for best picture is Spielberg’s ninth in that category, the most for any individual producer.

The nominees for best documentary feature include the tragic story of Amy Winehouse, “Amy,” “Cartel Land,” “The Look of Silence,” which is about families affected by the Indonesian genocide in 1965-1966, “What Happened, Miss Simone?” and “Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom.”

The Oscars will be presented at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on Feb. 28, aired on ABC and also televised in more than 225 countries. Chris Rock, the Oscar host in 2005, will host the event for the second time this year.

Here is a complete list of nominations announced for the 88th Academy Awards:

Best Picture

• “Bridge of Spies”
• “Brooklyn”
• “Mad Max: Fury Road”
• “Room”
• “Spotlight”
• “The Big Short”
• “The Martian”
• “The Revenant”

Best Actor

• Bryan Cranston, “Trumbo”
• Eddie Redmayne, “The Danish Girl”
• Leonardo DiCaprio, “The Revenant”
• Matt Damon, “The Martian”
• Michael Fassbender, “Steve Jobs”

Best Actress

• Brie Larson, “Room”
• Cate Blanchett, “Carol”
• Charlotte Rampling, “45 Years”
• Jennifer Lawrence, “Joy”
• Saoirse Ronan, “Brooklyn”

Supporting Actor

• Christian Bale, “The Big Short”
• Mark Ruffalo, “Spotlight”
• Mark Rylance, “Bridge of Spies”
• Sylvester Stallone, “Creed”
• Tom Hardy, “The Revenant”

Supporting Actress

• Alicia Vikander, “The Danish Girl”
• Jennifer Jason Leigh, “The Hateful Eight”
• Kate Winslet, “Steve Jobs”
• Rachel McAdams, “Spotlight”
• Rooney Mara, “Carol”

Animated Feature Film

• “Anomalisa”
• “Boy and the World”
• “Inside Out”
• “Shaun the Sheep Movie”
• “When Marnie Was There”

Cinematography

• Ed Lachman, “Carol”
• John Seale, “Mad Max: Fury Road”
• Roger Deakins, “Sicario”
• obert Richardson, “The Hateful Eight”
• Emmanuel Lubezki, “The Revenant”

Costume Design

• Sandy Powell, “Carol”
• Sandy Powell, “Cinderella”
• Jenny Beavan, “Mad Max: Fury Road”
• Paco Delgado, “The Danish Girl”
• Jacqueline West, “The Revenant”

Directing

• George Miller, “Mad Max: Fury Road”
• Lenny Abrahamson, “Room”
• Tom McCarthy, “Spotlight”
• Adam McKay, “The Big Short”
• Alejandro Inarritu, “The Revenant”

Documentary Feature

• “Amy”
• “Cartel Land”
• “The Look of Silence”
• “What Happened, Miss Simone?”
• “Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom”

Documentary Short

• “A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness”
• “Body Team 12”
• “Chau, Beyond the Lines”
• “Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah”
• “Last Day of Freedom”

Film Editing

• Margaret Sixel, “Mad Max: Fury Road”
• Tom McArdle, “Spotlight”
• Maryann Brandon, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”
• Hank Corwin, “The Big Short”
• Stephen Mirrione, “The Revenant”

Foreign Language Film

• “A War”
• “Embrace of the Serpent”
• “Mustang”
• “Son of Saul”
• “Theeb”

Makeup and Hairstyling

• Lesley Vanderwalt, Elka Wardega and Damian Martin, “Mad Max: Fury Road”
• Love Larson and Eva von Bahr, “The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared”
• Sian Grig, Duncan Jarman and Robert Pandini, “The Revenant”

Original Song

• “Earned It” from “Fifty Shades of Grey,” music and lyric by Abel Tesfaye, Ahmad Balshe, Jason Daheala Quenneville and Stephan Moccio
• “Manta Ray” from “Racing Extinction,” music by J. Ralph; lyric by Antony Hegarty
• “Simple Son #3” from “Youth,” music and lyric by David Lang
• “Til It Happens to You” from “The Hunting Ground,” music and lyric by Diane Warren and Lady Gaga
• “Writing’s on the Wall from “Spectre,” music and lyric by Jimmy Napes and Sam Smith

Original Score

• Thomas Newman, “Bridge of Spies”
• Carter Burwell, “Carol”
• Johann Johannsson, “Sicario”
• John Williamms, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”
• Ennio Morricone, “The Hateful Eight”

Production Design

• “Bridge of Spies”
• “Mad Max: Fury Road”
• “The Danish Girl”
• “The Martian”
• “The Revenant”

Short Film (Animated)

• “Bear Story”
• “Prologue”
• “Sanjay’s Super Team”
• “We Can’t Live Without Cosmos”
• “World of Tomorrow”

Short Film (Live Action)

• “Ave Maria”
• “Day One”
• “Everything Will Be Okay”
• “Shok”
• “Stutterer”

Sound Editing

• Mark Mangini and David White, “Mad Max: Fury Road”
• Alan Robert Murray, “Sicario”
• Matthew Wood and David Acord, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”
• Oliver Tarney, “The Martian”
• Martin Hernandez and Lon Bender, “The Revenant”

Sound Mixing

• “Bridge of Spies”
• “Mad Max: Fury Road”
• “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”
• “The Martian”
• “The Revenant”

Visual Effects

• “Ex Machina”
• “Mad Max: Fury Road”
• “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”
• “The Martian”
• “The Revenant”

Adapted Screenplay

• Nick Hornby, “Brooklyn”
• Phyllis Nagy, “Carol”
• Emma Donoghue, “Room”
• Charles Randolph and Adam McKay, “The Big Short”
• Drew Goddard, “The Martian”

Original Screenplay

• Matt Charman, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, “Bridge of Spies”
• Alex Garland, “Ex Machina”
• Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve, Josh Cooley; original story by Pete Docter and Ronnie del Carman, “Inside Out”
• Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy, “Spotlight”
• Jonathan Herman and Andrea Berloff; story by S. Leigh Savidge, Alan Wenkus and Andrea Berloff, “Straight Outta Compton”

--City News Service, photo courtesy of the Academy