‘Revenant,’ ‘Martian’ among Best Picture nominees for 88th Oscars

The Oscars, voted on by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, can have up to 10 best picture nominees, but voters selected just eight this year.

Fury Road led the way with 10 nominations, second only to the dozen scooped up by the period adventure The Revenant.

Christian Bale was also a Suporting Actor nominees for The Big Short, along with Tom Hardy for The Revenant, Mark Ruffalo in Spotlight and Mark Rylance in Bridge of Spies.

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

While “Mad Max: Fury Road” – which is the fourth installment in the action movie Mad Max franchise- also grabbed an impressive 10 nominations, including Best Picture, Best Production Design, Best Film Editing, Best Visual Effects, Best Make-up and Hairstyling, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, Best Costume Design, Best Cinematography and Best Director for George Miller. A nomination for Leonardo DiCaprio, who portrays 19 century fur trapper Hugh Glass in revenge thriller “The Revenant” – a big victor at Sunday’s Golden Globes with three prizes.

Those five films earned nominations this week for the Directors Guild of America (DGA) award, which is considered an Oscars bellwether.

The actor was nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for the movie Creed.

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).

Industry watchers have been hard-pressed this year to predict which movies and actors will be headed for glory at the Academy Awards on February 28 – the pinnacle of Tinseltown’s awards season – and many are betting on some surprises.

Kate Winslet, who is fresh off her Golden Globe win for her performance in “Steve Jobs”, is pitted against Alicia Vikander (“The Danish Girl”), Jennifer Jason Leigh (“The Hateful Eight”), Rachel McAdams (“Spotlight”), and Rooney Mara (“Carol”) for Actress in a Supporting Role. Joining him were Miller, Adam McKay for The Big Short, Lenny Abrahamson for Room and Tom McCarthy for Spotlight.

Here’s a complete list of all the nominees. Rashed, the staff’s multimedia reporter, covers daily news for the web, shoots/edits feature videos and writes about civil liberties.