Just one year after taking home the awards for Best Picture and Best Director for his film, “Birdman,” Alejandro G. Inarittu finds himself back in the race as his new film, “The Revenant,” led all films nominated today for the 88th Annual Academy Awards with (12) nods, including Best Picture and Best Director. The film also scored nominations for Leonardo DiCaprio for Best Actor and Tom Hardy for Best Supporting Actor.
George Miller’s “Mad Max; Fury Road” follows with (9) nominations, also including Best Picture and Best Director. Other Best Picture nominees, with their total nominations, include “The Martian” (7), “Spotlight” (6), “”The Big Short” and “Bridge of Spies” with (5) each, “Room” (4) and “Brooklyn” (3). “The Big Short,” “Room” and “Spotlight” also earned Best Director nominations.
Joining DiCaprio in the Best Actor race are Bryan Cranston (“Trumbo”), Matt Damon (“The Martian”), Michael Fassbender (“Steve Jobs”) and last year’s Best Actor winner, Eddie Redmayne (“The Danish Girl.”
The Best Actress race includes two previous winners of the award and includes Cate Blanchett (“Carol”), Brie Larson (“Room”), Jennifer Lawrence (“Joy”), Charlotte Rampling (“45 Years”) and Saoirse Ronan (“Brooklyn”).
Along with Hardy, nominees for Best Supporting Actor are Christian Bale (“The Big Short”), Mark Ruffalo (“Spotlight), Mark Rylance (“Bridge of Spies”) and Sylvester Stallone (“Creed”). With this nomination Stallone joins Cate Blanchett, Bing Crosby, Paul Newman, Peter O’Toole and Al Pacino as the only actors to be nominated twice for playing the same character. He was previously nominated as Best Actor in 1977 for playing boxer Rocky Balboa in “Rocky.” He also received a nomination that year for writing the script for the Oscar-winning Best Picture.
Best Supporting Actress is a mixture of veteran actresses and newcomers and include Jennifer Jason Leigh (“The Hateful Eight”), Rooney Mara (“Carol”), Rachel McAdams (“Spotlight”), Alicia Vikander (“The Danish Girl”) and Kate Winslet (“Steve Jobs”).
Joining Inarritu and Miller in the Best Director race are Adam McKay (“The Big Short”), Lenny Abrahamson (“Room”) and Tom McCarthy (“Spotlight”)
Nominees for Best Animated Feature are “Anomalisa,” “Boy and the World,’ ‘Inside Out,’ ‘Shaun the Sheep” and “When Marnie Was There.”
“Star Wars – Episode VII: The Force Awakens” earned (5) nominations, primarily in the technical categories.
For a complete list of nominees go to www.oscars.com. The 88th Academy Awards will be handed out on Sunday, February 28th.
