Here are 8 golden facts about this year’s Oscar nominations

There is nobody more deserving of that trust than Alejandro Inarritu. The other is how the Academy keeps giving some if its richest rewards to films that crowds shy away from because of dark and difficult-to-watch content.

The 41-year-old was nominated for a best actor Oscar on Thursday for his lead role in The Revenant.

Boone Isaacs, the Academy president, said: “We have been actively bringing in more diversity into our membershi actions need to be taken to make sure the industry as a whole is more inclusive”.

“Room” was considered a lock for a best actress nomination for star Brie Larson, though it wasn’t necessarily seen as a strong contender in other categories – but it ended up with a best picture and best director nomination for Lenny Abrahamson. They are: “The Big Short”, “Bridge of Spies”, “Brooklyn”, “Mad Max: Fury Road”, “The Martian”, “The Revenant”, “Room” and “Spotlight”.

Despite breakout performances from several African American actors this year, it was yet again a complete shut out making it the second consecutive year that all 20 of the acting nominees are white.

Netflix continues to expand its reputation as a production company with this original film by Cary Fukunaga.

But it’s true, there are nearly always more worthy films and performances than there are slots.

People were expecting Room to be nominated for Best Picture (which it was), but nobody predicted that this little-known Irish filmmaker would beat out The Martian’s Ridley Scott for a Best Director bid.

“The audience award changes that – the victor of that prize in Toronto has gone on to be a best-picture Oscar nominee six of the last seven years”, Rich wrote. McKay might be considered an unlikely candidate, being that his experience has been directing and cowriting comedies with Will Ferrell.

Alongside DiCaprio and Damon, the best actor nominees are: Michael Fassbender (“Steve Jobs”), Eddie Redmayne (“The Danish Girl”) and Bryan Cranston (“Trumbo”).

Tim Gray, the awards editor for industry magazine Variety, said while he felt the nominations were “a good list”, he lamented some snubs, including for black actor Will Smith in National Football League drama “Concussion”.

“Creed” nominee Sylvester Stallone, who received his first acting nod in 1976 for “Rocky”, is the sixth person to be nominated for the same role in different films.

“12 Years of Slave won Best Picture a few years ago along with Lupita Nyong’o for Best Supporting Actress”. Also nominated were Tom Hardy (“The Revenant”) and Christian Bale (“The Big Short”).

– Lots of newcomers in the acting categories.

Along with Mara and McAdams, the best supporting actress nominees were Alicia Vikander (“The Danish Girl”), Jennifer Jason Leigh (“The Hateful Eight”) and Kate Winslet (“Steve Jobs”), her seventh nod.

Should Inarritu win again this year for “The Revenant”, he will be joining just two other directors Joseph Mankiewicz and John Ford who won the award for two consecutive years.

On the flip side, the most popular film on the planet the past two months – “Star Wars: The Force Awakens“, (currently at $812 million at the box office) garnered four nominations, mostly in more minor, technical categories.

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

The race is now on for the coveted Oscars, to be handed out on February 28 at a ceremony hosted by comedian Chris Rock.