The 2016 Oscar nominations were released today and with the announcement came several surprises and controversies. While everyone expected Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s The Revenant to score at least a few nods, the icy frontier tale actually led the pack with nominations in twelve categories including best picture and best actor for Leonardo DiCaprio. This is DiCaprio’s fifth Oscar nomination in an acting category although he has never won the statue. He is up against the 2015 best actor winner, Eddie Redmayne, who stars in The Danish Girl, a film inspired by the true story of Lili Elbe, one of the first people to undergo gender reassignment surgery. While Redmayne is being praised for his acting chops, the movie has generated quite a bit of controversy as many question why a transgender actor was not cast in the role. Another debate involving this years Academy Awards is the significant lack of non-white actors among the nominees. This was not among the surprises of the 2016 announcements as time and time again the Oscars are chided for their lack of diversity. In fact last year’s Twitter hashtag, #OscarsSoWhite, has made a comeback in reaction to the nominations. On an optimistic note, at least 2016 seems to be a good one for girl power. The female-driven action film, Mad Max:Fury Road, is up for ten awards.
See the full list of nominees below:
Best motion picture of the year
• “The Big Short,” Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner, producers
• “Bridge of Spies,” Steven Spielberg, Marc Platt and Kristie Macosko Krieger, producers
• “Brooklyn,” Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey, producers
• “Mad Max: Fury Road,” Doug Mitchell and George Miller, producers
• “The Martian,” Simon Kinberg, Ridley Scott, Michael Schaefer and Mark Huffam, producers
• “The Revenant,” Arnon Milchan, Steve Golin, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Mary Parent and Keith Redmon, producers
• “Room,” Ed Guiney, producer
• “Spotlight,” Michael Sugar, Steve Golin, Nicole Rocklin and Blye Pagon Faust, producers
Performance by an actor in a leading role
• Bryan Cranston in “Trumbo”
• Matt Damon in “The Martian”
• Leonardo DiCaprio in “The Revenant”
• Michael Fassbender in “Steve Jobs”
• Eddie Redmayne in “The Danish Girl”
Performance by an actor in a supporting role
• Christian Bale in “The Big Short”
• Tom Hardy in “The Revenant”
• Mark Ruffalo in “Spotlight”
• Mark Rylance in “Bridge of Spies”
• Sylvester Stallone in “Creed”
Performance by an actress in a leading role
• Cate Blanchett in “Carol”
• Brie Larson in “Room”
• Jennifer Lawrence in “Joy”
• Charlotte Rampling in “45 Years”
• Saoirse Ronan in “Brooklyn”
Performance by an actress in a supporting role
• Jennifer Jason Leigh in “The Hateful Eight”
• Rooney Mara in “Carol”
• Rachel McAdams in “Spotlight”
• Alicia Vikander in “The Danish Girl”
• Kate Winslet in “Steve Jobs”
Best animated feature film of the year
• “Anomalisa,” Charlie Kaufman, Duke Johnson and Rosa Tran
• “Boy and the World,” Alê Abreu
• “Inside Out,” Pete Docter and Jonas Rivera
• “Shaun the Sheep Movie,” Mark Burton and Richard Starzak
• “When Marnie Was There,” Hiromasa Yonebayashi and Yoshiaki Nishimura
Achievement in cinematography
• “Carol,” Ed Lachman
• “The Hateful Eight,” Robert Richardson
• “Mad Max: Fury Road,” John Seale
• “The Revenant,” Emmanuel Lubezki
• “Sicario,” Roger Deakins
Achievement in costume design
• “Carol,” Sandy Powell
• “Cinderella,” Sandy Powell
• “The Danish Girl,” Paco Delgado
• “Mad Max: Fury Road,” Jenny Beavan
• “The Revenant,” Jacqueline West
Achievement in directing
• “The Big Short,” Adam McKay
• “Mad Max: Fury Road,” George Miller
• “The Revenant,” Alejandro G. Iñárritu
• “Room,” Lenny Abrahamson
• “Spotlight,” Tom McCarthy
Best documentary feature
• “Amy,” Asif Kapadia and James Gay-Rees
• “Cartel Land,” Matthew Heineman and Tom Yellin
• “The Look of Silence,” Joshua Oppenheimer and Signe Byrge Sørensen
• “What Happened, Miss Simone?” Liz Garbus, Amy Hobby and Justin Wilkes
• “Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom,” Evgeny Afineevsky and Den Tolmor
Best documentary short subject
• “Body Team 12,” David Darg and Bryn Mooser
• “Chau, beyond the Lines,” Courtney Marsh and Jerry Franck
• “Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah,” Adam Benzine
• “A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness,” Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
• “Last Day of Freedom,” Dee Hibbert-Jones and Nomi Talisman
Achievement in film editing
• “The Big Short,” Hank Corwin
• “Mad Max: Fury Road,” Margaret Sixel
• “The Revenant,” Stephen Mirrione
• “Spotlight,” Tom McArdle
• “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” Maryann Brandon and Mary Jo Markey
Best foreign-language film of the year
• “Embrace of the Serpent,” Colombia
• “Mustang,” France
• “Son of Saul,” Hungary
• “Theeb,” Jordan
• “A War,” Denmark
Achievement in makeup and hairstyling
• “Mad Max: Fury Road,” Lesley Vanderwalt, Elka Wardega and Damian Martin
• “The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared,” Love Larson and Eva von Bahr
• “The Revenant,” Siân Grigg, Duncan Jarman and Robert Pandini
Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)
• “Bridge of Spies,” Thomas Newman
• “Carol,” Carter Burwell
• “The Hateful Eight,” Ennio Morricone
• “Sicario,” Jóhann Jóhannsson
• “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” John Williams
Achievement in music written for motion pictures (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 and Lyric by Antony Hegarty
• “Simple Song #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
Achievement in production design
• “Bridge of Spies,” production design: Adam Stockhausen; set decoration: Rena DeAngelo and Bernhard Henrich
• “The Danish Girl,” production design: Eve Stewart; set decoration: Michael Standish
• “Mad Max: Fury Road,” production design: Colin Gibson; set decoration: Lisa Thompson
• “The Martian,” production design: Arthur Max; set decoration: Celia Bobak
• “The Revenant,” production design: Jack Fisk; set decoration: Hamish Purdy
Best animated short film
• “Bear Story,” Gabriel Osorio and Pato Escala
• “Prologue,” Richard Williams and Imogen Sutton
• “Sanjay’s Super Team,” Sanjay Patel and Nicole Grindle
• “We Can’t Live without Cosmos,” Konstantin Bronzit
• “World of Tomorrow,” Don Hertzfeldt
Best live-action short film
• “Ave Maria,” Basil Khalil and Eric Dupont
• “Day One,” Henry Hughes
• “Everything Will Be Okay (Alles Wird Gut),” Patrick Vollrath
• “Shok,” Jamie Donoughue
• “Stutterer,” Benjamin Cleary and Serena Armitage
Achievement in sound editing
• “Mad Max: Fury Road,” Mark Mangini and David White
• “The Martian,” Oliver Tarney
• “The Revenant,” Martin Hernandez and Lon Bender
• “Sicario,” Alan Robert Murray
• “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” Matthew Wood and David Acord
Achievement in sound mixing
• “Bridge of Spies,” Andy Nelson, Gary Rydstrom and Drew Kunin
• “Mad Max: Fury Road,” Chris Jenkins, Gregg Rudloff and Ben Osmo
• “The Martian,” Paul Massey, Mark Taylor and Mac Ruth
• “The Revenant,” Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño, Randy Thom and Chris Duesterdiek
• “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” Andy Nelson, Christopher Scarabosio and Stuart Wilson
Achievement in visual effects
• “Ex Machina,” Andrew Whitehurst, Paul Norris, Mark Ardington and Sara Bennett
• “Mad Max: Fury Road,” Andrew Jackson, Tom Wood, Dan Oliver and Andy Williams
• “The Martian,” Richard Stammers, Anders Langlands, Chris Lawrence and Steven Warner
• “The Revenant,” Rich McBride, Matthew Shumway, Jason Smith and Cameron Waldbauer
• “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Neal Scanlan and Chris Corbould
Adapted screenplay
• “The Big Short,” screenplay by Charles Randolph and Adam McKay
• “Brooklyn,” screenplay by Nick Hornby
• “Carol,” screenplay by Phyllis Nagy
• “The Martian,” screenplay by Drew Goddard
• “Room,” screenplay by Emma Donoghue
Original screenplay
• “Bridge of Spies,” written by Matt Charman and Ethan Coen & Joel Coen
• “Ex Machina,” written by Alex Garland
• “Inside Out,” screenplay by Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve and Josh Cooley; original story by Pete Docter and Ronnie del Carmen
• “Spotlight,” written by Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy
