The Academy has announced what films are worthy to call themselves the best of 2015. The Revenant, Mad Max: Fury Road, and The Martian were shown a lot of love in the nomination process, but Star Wars: The Force Awakens did get a handful of nominations as well. Now, let’s look at the nominations and discuss the odd Oscar snubs and the nominations that caught some by surprise.
Okay, we definitely need to talk about some of the choices this year. While I was pretty satisfied with the nominations overall, there were quite a few surprises, and some Oscar snubs do leave me somewhat disappointed.
- Best Makeup and Hairstyling: Where’s Mr Holmes?
Now this is a weird category. We’ve seen the Academy nominate more than three and less than three before, and I was really shocked that the Academy didn’t recognize Mr Holmes here, but then again this category has always been a little out of place with the number of nominees announced.
- Best Original Song: No love for Furious 7 or Love & Mercy.
This one really shocked me. Not only did they nominate the wrong song from Fifty Shades of Grey, in my humble opinion, but they also left out my two favorite candidates for the category. Love & Mercy‘s “One Kind of Love” and Furious 7‘s “See You Again” definitely should have been recognized, the former of which apparently wasn’t even eligible for some reason. This category was the one thing that really surprised me.
- Best Adapted Screenplay: The Academy ignores Aaron Sorkin.
Just a few days after the Golden Globes awarded Aaron Sorkin with an award for his screenplay based on the Walter Isaacson biography of Steve Jobs, the Academy has chosen to completely ignore him. I really thought Sorkin was a certain nominee here.
- Best Supporting Actress: The Curious Case of Alicia Vikander.
Alicia Vikander delivered the best performance of 2015, in my opinion. She was absolutely amazing in EX_MACHINA, yet they chose to nominate her for The Danish Girl instead. I had hoped that perhaps Vikander would be nominated for The Danish Girl in the Best Actress-category instead, but that wasn’t the case.
- Best Supporting Actor: No diversity.
I think the Academy really screwed up in this category. I thought Paul Dano was a lock for a nomination, but he was completely overlooked. But that isn’t the biggest problem, or even the one I’m pointing out here. Two of the best performances in 2015 came from Benicio Del Toro and Idris Elba, and they should have been nominated here. I’m really annoyed that neither of them were. Once again you can definitely argue that the Academy has a race problem…
- Best Director: McKay and Abrahamsson pushes Ridley Scott out of the category.
I expected the Academy to nominate both Spielberg and Ridley Scott in this category, with the latter being a lock. Somehow they overlooked them both, and instead gave nominations to Adam McKay and Lenny Abrahamsson. I feel bad for Scott, as I feel The Martian is one of the his best films ever.
- Best Picture: Inside Out overlooked.
I’m the kind of guy that prefers it when the Academy only nominates 5 films. I really don’t want them to pick and chose between 5 and 10. Pick a number. This year they nominated eight films, but somehow overlooked the film they gave a Best Original Screenplay-nomination and Best Animated Film-nomination to. That doesn’t sit right with me.
Here is the full list of nominations for the 88th Academy Awards to be held at the end of February 2016:
BEST PICTURE
The Big Short
Bridge of Spies
Brooklyn
Mad Max: Fury Road
Room
Spotlight
The Martian
The Revenant
BEST DIRECTOR
Lenny Abrahamsson, Room
A. G. Inarritu, The Revenant
Tom McCarthy, Spotlight
Adam McKay, The Big Short
George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road
BEST ACTOR
Bryan Cranston, Trumbo.
Eddie Redmayne, The Danish Girl.
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant.
Matt Damon, The Martian.
Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs.
BEST ACTRESS
Cate Blanchett, Carol
Brie Larson, Room
Jennifer Lawrence, Joy
Charlotte Rampling, 45 Year
Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Christian Bale, The Big Short
Tom Hardy, The Revenant
Mark Ruffalo, Spotlight
Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies
Sylvester Stallone, Creed
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Hateful Eight
Rooney Mara, Carol
Rachel McAdams, Spotlight
Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl
Kate Winslet, Steve Jobs
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Bridge of Spies
EX_MACHINA
Inside Out
Spotlight
Straight Outta Compton
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
The Big Short
Brooklyn
Carol
The Martian
Room
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
Anomalisa
Boy & The World
Inside Out
Shaun the Sheep Movie
When Marnie Was There
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
A War, Denmark
Embrace of the Serpent, Columbia
Mustang, France
Son of Saul, Hungary
Theeb, Jordan
BEST DOCUMENTARY – FEATURE
Amy
Cartel Land
The Look of Silence
What Happened, Miss Simone?
Winter on Fire
BEST DOCUMENTARY – SHORT SUBJECT
Body Team 12
Chau, Beyond the Lines
Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah
A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness
Last Day of Freedom
BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
Alles Wird Gut
Ave Maria
Day One
Shok
Stutterer
BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM
Historia de un Oso
Mi ne mozhem zhit bez kosmosa
Prologue
Sanjay’s Super Team
World of Tomorrow
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Bridge of Spies
Carol
Sicario
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
The Hateful Eight
BEST ORIGINAL SONG
“Earned It”, Fifty 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
BEST SOUND EDITING
Mad Max: Fury Road
Sicario
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
The Martian
The Revenant
BEST SOUND MIXING
Bridge of Spies
Mad Max: Fury Road
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
The Martian
The Revenant
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
Bridge of Spies
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Danish Girl
The Martian
The Revenant
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Carol
Mad Max: Fury Road
Sicario
The Hateful Eight
The Revenant
BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Hundred-Year Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window and Disappeared
The Revenant
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Carol
Cinderella
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Danish Girl
The Revenant
BEST FILM EDITING
Mad Max: Fury Road
Spotlight
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
The Big Short
The Revenant
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
EX_MACHINA
Mad Max: Fury Road
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
The Martian
The Revenant
I’m Jeffrey Rex
I'm Jeffrey Rex 