“The Revenant” Leads Oscar Nomination with 12 Nods

DiCaprio, the star of survival epic The Revenant, has been nominated four times but has yet to win an Academy Award.

In the Best Actor category I think Leonardo Dicaprio will take home his first win ever in over twenty years of acting for his commanding and all too realistic role in The Revenant.

Cast and crew of “The Revenant” celebrated their 12 Oscar nominations at the film’s London premiere on Thursday, saying they were “honored” to be leading the race for this year’s awards.

The other categories in which it was nominated: best director, best supporting actor (for past Oscar victor Christian Bale), best adapted screenplay and best film editing.

The Golden Globe Award acting nominations this year were also mostly white, with Elba and Will Smith, who was nominated for best actor in a drama for “Concussion”, the only black nominees.

On the other hand, Cate Blanchett, Carol, Brie Larson, Room, Jennifer Lawrence, Joy, Charlotte Rampling, 45 Years, Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn were nominated for actress in a leading role.

Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs, who had led efforts to diversify the academy’s memberships, acknowledged she was “disappointed”.

The actor was getting some serious buzz for reprising his role as an aging Rocky Balboa again for the spin-off Creed, but no one was really sure if he was going to end up with a Supporting Actor nomination, even after he won the Golden Globe last week. “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”, nabbed 5 nominations…but not best picture.

Expect this year’s Oscar host Chris Rock to have this on his hit list during his routine on 28 February.

The movie that follows The Revenant when counting the nominations is Mad Max: Fury Road, with 10 categories, including best picture, best director, best cinematography and best visual effects. Films that have flown under the radar can see a big box-office boost from all the free marketing from the nominations and the awards ceremony itself. Unfortunately, there is a striking issue with the 2016 Oscars’ list of nominees: a lack of diversity!

Most notably absent from the Oscar nominations was “Straight Outta Compton”, the story about the rise of the rap group NWA.

“The Revenant” and “The Martian” are among the eight nominated for best motion picture.

The nominations for the 2016 Oscars are out. Rounding out the category: “Bridge of Spies”, “Brooklyn”, “The Martian”, “The Big Short”, and “Spotlight”, which got six nominations in all, including supporting actress (Rachel McAdams) and supporting actor (Mark Ruffalo). Its first original feature, Cary Fukunaga’s West African child war film “Beasts of No Nation”, was shut out.

The other animated feature nominees are “Anomalisa”, “Boy and the World”, “Shaun the Sheep Movie” and “When Marnie Was There”.

Among the foreign films nominated were Hungarian Holocaust drama “Son of Saul”, Jordan’s “Theeb”, Colombia’s “Embrace of the Serpent” and “Mustang”, a French production about five Turkish sisters living in subjugation.