The 88th Academy Awards Nominations

This morning, the nominations for the upcoming Oscars were announced and the big winners were The Revenant and Mad max: Fury Road, with 12 and 10 respectively.

Spotlight, an earlier favorite, garnered 6, but Michael Keaton was left out, even though some prognosticators expected him to take home the statue this year after missing out last year in spite of his big comeback in Birdman.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens garnered 5 nominations, but in spite of its enormous financial success and popular and critical acclaim, it clearly didn't have enough fans among Academy members to earn a Best Picture nomination, in spite of there still being two spots available. Given the new nominating mechanisms for Best Picture, this was not an intentional snub for a sci-fi movie, rather, it just didn't get enough first, second, or third picks to rise to the top.

However, the latest entry in the Star Wars saga did garner John Williams his 50th Academy Award nomination for his score, the record among composers.

Another sci-fi movie that did make the cut for Best Picture is The Martian, which earn 7 nominations. I can't wait to see this movie.

The two LGBT themed movies, Carol and The Danish Girl, earned 6 and 4 nominations respectively, and their studios' wishes were respected. Rooney Mara and Alicia Wikander were both nominated as Supporting Actresses rather than Leading to increase their chances of winning, even though they were both leading roles.

The ceremony will be held on February 28 and will be hosted by one of my least favorites hosts, Chris Rock. Aside from needing subtitles, I just don't find him particularly funny or good as a presenter.

UPDATE: I forgot to comment on

• Jennifer Lawrence's nomination for Leading Actress. Just as I found myself twisting my nose at her recent win of a Golden Globe for this role in a movie that was pretty resoundingly panned, I now wonder how a nomination in a year filled with amazing roles for women, and therefore in a very competitive race, came about. Again, I guess she's widely liked and I like her too, a lot, but this is approaching the incomprehensible. This is Ms. Lawrence's 4th nomination for an acting Oscar in five short years. And she's barely 25! Now let that sink in for a moment. Keep in mind that I absolutely adore her on and off the screen, but I'm starting to feel like this is a bit much. She reminds me of the stars of the 40s, who would star in every movie, cover every magazine, appear in every editorial, mostly pushed by a studio to which they were signed, eager to have their name recognition reach higher and higher heights. I now feel confident in predicting that she might be the one who will surpass Meryl Streep's nomination record before the end of her career, unless she suddenly quits acting. Again, she's only 25 and already 1/5 of the way there... chew on that for a moment.
• At the other end of the spectrum and from the same category, we finally see Charlotte Rampling recognized with her first (GASP!!) acting nomination for a role hailed by critics as an astounding achievement. I actually hope she wins it. I've always admired her work on screen very much.
• Will this be Leonardo DiCaprio's year?
• And will it be the year that Sylvester Stallone takes home the Oscar for Supporting Actor for a role for which he also received a Leading Actor nomination 39 years ago?!
• I'm glad Tom Hardy and Mark Ruffalo were nominated. They're both very good actors who, for different reasons, very often get passed over.

Here's the full list of nominations:

Best Picture

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

Directing

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

Actress in a Leading Role

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

Actor in a Leading Role

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

Actress in a Supporting Role

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

Actor in a Supporting Role

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

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

Carol, Screenplay by Phyllis Nagy
The Martian, Screenplay by Drew Goddard
Room, Screenplay by Emma Donoghue
The Big Short, Screenplay by Charles Randolph and Adam McKay
Brooklyn, Screenplay by Nick Hornby

Writing (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, Josh Cooley; Original story by Pete Docter, Ronnie del Carmen
Spotlight, Written by Josh Singer & Tom McCarthy
Straight Outta Compton, Screenplay by Jonathan Herman and Andrea Berloff; Story by S. Leigh Savidge & Alan Wenkus and Andrea Berloff

Animated Feature Film

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
Anomalisa, Charlie Kaufman, Duke Johnson and Rosa Tran
Boy and the World, Alê Abreu

Foreign Language Film

Mustang, France
Son of Saul, Hungary
Theeb, Jordan
A War, Denmark
Embrace of the Serpent, Colombia

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

Cinematography

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

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

Sound Editing

Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Matthew Wood and David Acord
Mad Max: Fury Road, Mark Mangini and David White
The Martian, Oliver Tarney
The Revenant, Martin Hernandez and Lon Bender
Sicario, Alan Robert Murray

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

Costume Design

Carol, Sandy Powell
Cinderella, Sandy Powell
The Danish Girl, Paco Delgado
Mad Max: Fury Road, Jenny Beavan
The Revenant, Jacqueline West

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

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

Music (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

Music (Original Song)

Fifty Shades of Grey, “Earned It” from Fifty Shades of Grey; Music and Lyric by Abel Tesfaye, Ahmad Balshe, Jason Daheala Quenneville and Stephan Moccio
Racing Extinction, “Manta Ray” from Racing Extinction; Music by J. Ralph, Lyric by Antony Hegarty
Youth, “Simple Song #3” from Youth; Music and Lyric by David Lang
The Hunting Ground, “Til It Happens To You” from The Hunting Ground; Music and Lyric by Diane Warren and Lady Gaga
Spectre, “Writing’s On The Wall” from Spectre; Music and Lyric by Jimmy Napes and Sam Smith

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

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

Short Film (Animated)

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
Bear Story, Gabriel Osorio and Pato Escala

Short Film (Live Action)

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