'Revenant' lands leading 12 Oscar nominations

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) - The brutal frontier saga "The Revenant" leads the 88th annual Academy Awards with 12 nominations, while the acting categories were again filled entirely by white performers.

 

   The strong showing for "The Revenant," including a best actor nod for Leonardo DiCaprio, follows its win at the Golden Globes. It sets director Alejandro Inarritu for a possible back-to-back win following his best-picture winning "Birdman" last year.

 

   George Miller's "Mad Max: Fury Road" followed with 10 nominations, including best picture. Ridley Scott's sci-fi epic "The Martian" landed 7 nominations, including best picture, but no best director nod for Scott.

 

   Eight films were nominated for best picture. The other five were: Tom McCarthy's investigative journalistic procedural "Spotlight," Steven Spielberg's Cold War thriller "Bridge of Spies," Adam McKay's Michael Lewis adaptation "The Big Short," the mother-son captive drama "Room" and the `50s Irish immigrant tale "Brooklyn."

 

   Left on the outside were Todd Haynes' acclaimed lesbian romance "Carol" and the N.W.A biopic "Straight Outta Compton."

 

   The acting nominees, which notably omitted Idris Elba for "Beasts of No Nation" and Benicio Del Toro for "Sicario," gave the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences an awkward repeat of the "OscarsSoWhite" backlash that followed last year's acting nominees.

 

   Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs has since redoubled efforts to diversify the academy's membership, and slated Chris Rock to host this year's Feb. 28 ceremony.

 

   Alongside DiCaprio, the nominees for best actor are: Matt Damon ("The Martian"), Michael Fassbender ("Steve Jobs"), Eddie Redmayne ("The Danish Girl") and Bryan Cranston ("Trumbo"). One big name omitted was Johnny Depp for his Whitey Bulger in "Black Mass."

 

   The best actress field is led by favorite Brie Larson for "Room," along with Jennifer Lawrence (for "Joy," making her, at 25, the youngest four-time nominee), Cate Blanchett ("Carol"), Saoirse Ronan ("Brooklyn") and Charlotte Rampling ("45 Years").

 

   After seemingly slipping in an unpredictable awards season, "Spotlight" showed particularly strength Thursday, landing six nominations including best director for McCarthy, best screenplay for McCarthy and Josh Singer and best supporting actor for Mark Ruffalo.

 

   Best supporting actor is led by a comeback story for Sylvester Stallone, reprising his role as Rocky Balboa in "Creed." His stiffest competition is seen as acclaimed theater actor Mark Rylance for "Bridge of Spies." Also nominated were Tom Hardy ("The Revenant") and Christian Bale ("The Big Short").

 

   "I am incredibly humbled by this honor," Stallone wrote in an email. "I was not expecting it ... especially at this time in my life. I am certainly grateful to the artists and collaborators who helped make it possible."

 

   As expected, Pixar's "Inside Out" landed a best animated feature nod, as did the Charlie Kaufman-penned "Anomalisa," "Shaun the Sheep Movie," "Boy and the World" and "When Marnie Was There."

 

   The foreign language category drew films from Hungary ("Son Of Saul"), France ("Mustang"), Jordan ("Theeb'), Denmark ("A War") and Colombia ("Embrace the Serpent").

 

   Though some fans had hoped for a better showing, the box-office behemoth "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" failed to land a best picture nomination. It instead scored five technical nods for editing, score, visual effects, sound mixing and sound editing.

 

   Since the best picture field was expanded from five nominees to up to 10, in 2010, every year has delivered nine nominations until this year's eight. The original reasoning was partly to make room for bigger, more populist films like Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight" alongside acclaimed independent releases. 

 

   But the chances for "The Force Awakens" were hurt because the category already has one sci-fi blockbuster ("The Martian"), as well as a number of major studio releases. 20th Century Fox had an especially good day, led by "The Revenant" and "The Martian."

 

Here is a full list of the nominees:

 

BEST PICTURE

·         The Big Short

·         Bridge of Spies

·         Brooklyn

·         Mad Max: Fury Road

·         The Martian

·         The Revanant

·         Room

·         Spotlight

 

BEST ACTOR

·         Bryan Cranston, Trumbo

·         Matt Damon, The Martian

·         Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant

·         Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs

·         Eddie Redmayne, The Danish Girl

 

BEST ACTRESS

·         Cate Blanchett, Carol

·         Brie Larson, Room

·         Jennifer Lawrence, Joy

·         Charlotte Rampling, 45 Years

·         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

 

DIRECTING

·         The Big Short

·         Mad Max: Fury Road

·         The Revenant

·         Room

·         Spotlight

 

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

·         Anomalisa

·         Boy and the World

·         Inside Out

·         Shaun the Sheep Movie

·         When Marie Was There

 

COSTUME DESIGN

·         Carol

·         Cinderella

·         The Danish Girl

·         Mad Mad: Fury Road

·         The Revenant

 

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

·         Amy

·         Cartel Land

·         The Look of Silence

·         What Happened, Miss Simone?

·         Winter on Fire

 

DOCUMENTARY SHORT

·         Body Team

·         Chau, Beyond the Lines

·         Claude Lanzmann

·         A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness

·         Last Day of Freedom

 

MAKEUP AND HAIR STYLING

·         Mad Max: Fury Road

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

·         The Revenant

 

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

 

ANIMATED SHORT

·         Bear Story

·         Prologue

·         Sanjay's Super Team

·         We Can't Leave Without Cosmos

·         World of Tomorrow

 

SOUND EDITING

·         Mad Mad: Fury Road

·         Sicario

·         Star Wars: The Force Awakens

·         The Martian

·         The Revenant

 

FILM EDITING

·         The Big Short

·         Mad Max: Fury Road

·         The Revenant

·         Spotlight

·         Star Wars: The Force Awakens

 

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

·         Embrace of the Serpent

·         Mustang

·         Son of Saul

·         Theeb

·         A War

 

ORIGINAL SCORE

·         Bridge of Spies

·         Carol

·         The Hateful Eight

·         Sicario

·         Star Wars: The Force Awakens

 

PRODUCTION DESIGN

·         Bridge of Spies

·         The Danish Girl

·         Mad Max: Fury Road

·         The Martian

·         The Revenant

 

VISUAL EFFECTS

·         Ex Machina

·         Mad Max: Fury Road

·         The Martian

·         The Revenant

·         Star Wars: The Force Awakens

 

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

·         The Big Short

·         Brooklyn

·         Carol

·         The Martian

·         Room

 

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

·         Bridge of Spies

·         Ex Machina

·         Inside Out

·         Spotlight

·         Straight Outta Compton