ANNOUNCEMENT: the 2016 Oscar nominations! (and some thoughts)

This morning at 5:30am (pacific), the Academy of Motion Pictures and Arts announced their Oscar nominations, presenting accolades and visions of gold statuettes to certain individuals and films from 2015. The announcements were streamed online on both YouTube and Entertainment Weekly, as well as oscar.org and they were also broadcast on television on ABC. Who in the world was up at the crack of dawn to read off the nominees? Directors Guillermo del Toro and Ang Lee announced the first round of nominees, which included categories for: animated feature film, cinematography, costume design, documentary feature, documentary short subject, makeup and hairstyling, original song, animated short film, live action short film, sound editing, and sound mixing.

Then the second round was announced by actor John Krasinski (whose presence promotes Michael Bay’s “Benghazi” movie) and Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs (you may remember her “Dick Poop” mishap from last year? well, she did again by botching the pronunciation of last year’s Oscar winner, director  Alejandro G. Iñárritu – it’s  ih-nyar-ee-too). They named the nominees for: actor, actress, supporting actor, supporting actress, directing, film editing, foreign language film, original score, best picture, production design, visual effects, adapted screenplay, and original screenplay.

And the nominees are….  

BEST PICTURE

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

  BEST DIRECTOR

• Alejandro G. Iñárritu – The Revenant
• Adam McKay – The Big Short
• Tom McCarthy – Spotlight
• George Miller — Mad Max: Fury Road
• Lenny Abrahamson — Room

  BEST ACTRESS

• Brie Larson – Room
• Saoirse Ronan – Brooklyn
• Cate Blanchett – Carol
• Charlotte Rampling – 45 Years
• Jennifer Lawrence — Joy

  BEST ACTOR

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

  BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

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

    BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

• Mark Rylance – Bridge of Spies
• Sylvester Stallone – Creed
• Christian Bale – The Big Short
• Mark Ruffalo – Spotlight
• Tom Hardy — The Revenant

    BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

• The Big Short – Adam McKay, Charles Randolph
• Room — Emma Donaghue
• Carol – Phyllis Nagy
• The Martian – Drew Goddard
• Brooklyn – Nick Hornby

  BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

• Spotlight – Tom McCarthy, Josh Singer
• Inside Out – Josh Cooley, Pete Docter, Meg LeFavue
• Straight Outta Compton — Jonathan Herman, Andrea Berloff, S. Leigh Savidge, Alan Wenkus
• Ex Machina – Alex Garland
• Bridge of Spies – Matt Charman, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen

  BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

• The Revenant – Emmanuel Lubezki
• Sicario – Roger Deakins
• Carol – Edward Lachman
• Mad Max: Fury Road – John Seale
• The Hateful Eight – Robert Richardson

  BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

• The Hateful Eight – Ennio Morricone
• Star Wars: The Force Awakens – John Williams
• Bridge of Spies – Thomas Newman
• Carol – Carter Burwell
• Sicario — Johann Johannsson

  BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

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

    BEST FILM EDITING

• Mad Max: Fury Road
• The Revenant
• Spotlight
• The Big Short
• Star Wars: The Force Awakens

  BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING

• The Revenant
• The 100-Year-Old-Man Who Climbed Out a Window and Disappeared
• Mad Max: Fury Road

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

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

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

• Carol
• Cinderella
• The Danish Girl
• Mad Max: Fury Road
• The Revenant

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

• “Earned It” from Fifty Shades of Grey
• “Manta Ray” from Racing Extinction
• “Til It Happens to You” from The Hunting Ground
• “Writing’s on the Wall” from Spectre
• “Simple Song #3” from Youth

BEST SOUND EDITING

• Sicario
• Mad Max: Fury Road
• The Martian
• The Revenant
• Star Wars: The Force Awakens

BEST SOUND MIXING

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

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

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

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FEATURE

• Mustang – France
• Son of Saul – Hungary
• Theeb – Jordan
• A War — Denmark
• Embrace of the Serpent — Colombia

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

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

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT

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

BEST SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION)

• Ave Maria
• Day One
• Everything Will Be Okay (Alles Wird Gut)
• Shok
• Stutterer

BEST SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)

• Bear Story (Historia de un Oso)
• Prologue
• Sanjay’s Super Team
• We Can’t Live Without Cosmos 
• World of Tomorrow

Just like every year, some will be disappointed while others will be elated with these nominees. I’m pretty content with them, knowing how Oscar voters typically vote – how would they not nominate Bryan Cranston as Trumbo, a controversial Hollywood writer? That’s kind of a no-brainer. Here are my other thoughts on any surprises and snubs….

I was quite surprised to not see Sorkin or Tarantino (“The Hateful Eight”) – especially Sorkin, whose screenplay was the star of Danny Boyle’s “Steve Jobs”. Overall though, I’m really pleased with the nominees in the Best Original Screenplay category – especially with the love for both “Ex Machina” and “Inside Out”.

I was fine seeing “Carol” and its director Todd Haynes left out of their respective Best Picture and Best Director categories, since it made room for “Room” director Lenny Abrahamson to secure a nomination for the first time, I suppose. At the same time, it looks like Abrahamson took Sir Ridley Scott’s slot and even though I liked “The Martian”, I’m fine with that – “Room” could use more exposure. My enthusiasm for “Carol” has waned since my viewing back in November, but I still respect it on many levels.

It’s already being said this morning that we once again have on our hands a list of ‘white-washed’ Oscar nominees – at least, in the acting categories – with a disregard of votes for any minority actors. It’s typical of the Academy and my only bit of consolation in this are would be to say that the Oscars aren’t the end-all and rarely do voters have an idea of what else is out there beyond what’s being buzzed about. So, studios that have excellent work from non-white actors to promote should do so with more urgency.

“The Revenant” leads with 12 nominations, followed by “Mad Max: Fury Road” with 10 nominations.

Actor/comedian Chris Rock, who hasn’t hosted since “Million Dollar Baby” won in 2005, will be hosting once again this year . The 88th Oscars will be presented on Feb. 28th, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, airing live on ABC beginning at 7 pm (eastern).