2016 Oscar Nominations And Thoughts

The nominations for the 2016 Academy Awards have been announced and I wanted to both list them out and add a few notes for several of the categories. As always, while Oscars are certainly a huge achievement, they do not suddenly take away the thoughts that you or anyone had on certain films. Not seeing a film mentioned does not mean you were wrong or that they were right, things just happen the way they do. That said, it is not at all a bad thing to have some thoughts on what has went down and where things will go from here. Whether that means criticizing the lack of diversity or having qualms with which film certain actors could have been nominated for instead, it stands to reason that just as much fun can be had with going over how things did work out, as much as they did.

BEST PICTURE

The Big Short

Bridge of Spies

Brooklyn

Mad Max: Fury Road

The Martian

The Revenant

Room

Spotlight

Lots of great picks to be found in here, with obvious love going towards Mad Max, given that it was both my favorite film of 2015 (along with many others) and its a wild genre film to mix things up for the Oscars. Critical favorite Carol missed out here and in the Directing category, along with Straight Outta Compton. Given its successful march through awards season, it's amazing the Academy didn't just go with 10 nominees.

BEST ACTOR

Bryan Cranston, Trumbo

Matt Damon, The Martian

Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant

Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs

Eddie Redmayne, The Danish Girl

No surprises here, despite being the first of four acting categories featuring all white actors for the second year in a row. That said, this is a list of terrific performances and it looks like Leo is all set to win this year, finally.

BEST ACTRESS

Cate Blanchett, Carol

Brie Larson, Room

Jennifer Lawrence, Joy

Charlotte Rampling, 45 Years

Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn

No surprises again, though Rampling was a late-in-the-game entry. I'd be happy to see Larson win for Room, but given the great films she's been a part of, even if she didn't win, she'll likely be here again.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Christian Bale, The Big Short

Tom Hardy, The Revenant

Mark Ruffalo, Spotlight

Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies

Sylvester Stallone, Creed

Spotlight likely had issues with having all the actors competing for supporting performance, but at least Ruffalo got through and not having Keaton won't cancel him out. Really, I'd love seeing any of these win except Hardy. As much as a love Hardy as a performer, this is one of his weaker roles. Good for Creed by the way, it got something!

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Hateful Eight

Rooney Mara, Carol

Rachel McAdams, Spotlight

Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl

Kate Winslet, Steve Jobs

Vikander in for The Danish Girl and not Ex Machina is irritating, but this is another solid list. That said, as much as I loved Steve Jobs, Winslet's slippery Polish accent was pretty awkward.

DIRECTING

Adam McKay - The Big Short

George Miller - Mad Max: Fury Road

Alejandro G. Iñárritu - The Revenant

Lenny Abrahamson - Room

Tom McCarthy - Spotlight

No Ridley Scott! Well that's something. George Miller's recognition is terrific though and his odds have now likely went up. Of course, this could be a big night for Spotlight, which would make me plenty happy. Abrahamson's movie is similarly unshowy at first glance, so it's nice to see him here. And how about that, Anchorman's Adam McKay is now an Oscar nominated director.

FILM EDITING

The Big Short

Mad Max: Fury Road

The Revenant

Spotlight

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Mad Max is elegant chaos masterfully put on display, let this one go to the wasteland.

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

The Big Short

Brooklyn

Carol

The Martian

Room

Drew Goddard is now an Oscar nominee. Awesome. Perhaps Nick Hornby can finally win something.

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Bridge of Spies

Ex Machina

Inside Out

Spotlight

Straight Outta Compton

Straight Outta Compton snuck into here of all places? Interesting. Obviously I would have preferred Tarantino's The Hateful Eight, but at least Ex Machina got some love. This is the Spotlight category though, which I'm very happy with.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Carol

The Hateful Eight

Mad Max: Fury Road

The Revenant

Sicario

Maybe Deakins can finally win for his haunting work in Sicario. 

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

Anomalisa

Boy and the World

Inside Out

Shaun the Sheep Movie

When Marnie Was There

No Peanuts, but no Good Dinosaur or Minions either. So that's nice. 

ANIMATED SHORT

Bear Story

Prologue

Sanjay's Super Team

We Can't Live Without Cosmos

World of Tomorrow

I gotta see that World of Tomorrow.

COSTUME DESIGN

Carol

Cinderella

The Danish Girl

Mad Max: Fury Road

The Revenant

I'm willing to bet there's a comedic bit of someone dressing up as the Doof Warrior from Mad Max during the broadcast. That said, this one has to go to Cinderella, right?

PRODUCTION DESIGN

Bridge of Spies

The Danish Girl

Mad Max: Fury Road

The Martian

The Revenant

ORIGINAL SCORE

Bridge of Spies

Carol

The Hateful Eight

Sicario

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Okay, Star Wars is great and all, but another bone tossed to Williams? You go Ennio!

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

One of the weirder categories, as Fifty Shades of Grey can now call itself an Oscar-nominated film. Also, this was the one place Furious 7 could have gotten some love, but nope, random songs few people heard are here instead, along with not-Skyfall.

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Amy

Cartel Land

The Look of Silence

What Happened, Miss Simone?

Winter on Fire

I need to see that Look of Silence.

DOCUMENTARY SHORT

Body Team

Chau, Beyond the Lines

Claude Lanzmann

A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness

Last Day of Freedom

These are probably good.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

Embrace of the Serpent

Mustang

Son of Saul

Theeb

A War

Hearing great things about Mustang.

MAKEUP AND HAIR STYLING

Mad Max: Fury Road

The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared

The Revenant 

Happy to see Black Mass shut out on this one, along with Depp for actor.

VISUAL EFFECTS

Ex Machina

Mad Max: Fury Road

The Martian

The Revenant

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Everyone wins?

SOUND MIXING

Bridge of Spies

Mad Max: Fury Road

The Martian

The Revenant

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

SOUND EDITING

Mad Max: Fury Road

Sicario

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

The Martian

The Revenant

Surprised Straight Outta Compton didn't lock a Sound nomination, but all these films do what they do.

And that does it for now. I'm a little sad that Love & Mercy didn't get any love at all and yes, there isn't too much imagination when it comes to the acting nominees. All that said, I'm always jazzed about the technical nominees and look forward to seeing what happens with them. Obviously I want to see where Best Picture goes as well and the lack of an obvious frontrunner is exciting. The ceremony airs live on February 28th and Chris Rock will surely have something to say about what's went down with the acting nominees.