Oscar nominees revealed: ‘The Revenant’ leads with 12 nods

Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio welcomed his latest Oscar acting nomination for “The Revenant”, saying the nod “feels great”.

Finally, we have the Best Picture category that every movie strives to win.

Pixar’s Inside Out is in the running for best animated feature film, with competitors including Charlie Kaufman’s Anomalisa and the Shaun the Sheep Movie, featuring the character first seen alongside Wallace and Gromit in Aardman’s A Close Shave.

The best picture nominees, besides those two, are “Bridge of Spies”, “Spotlight”, “The Big Short”, “The Martian”, “Brooklyn” and “Room”.

The nominations were full of surprises.

Sylvester Stallone, enjoying a new wave of popularity, scored a supporting actor nod for reprising his career-defining role as boxer Rocky Balboa in “Creed“. Paul Newman had the previous mark – 26 years – for being nominated for playing Fast Eddie Felson in 1960’s “The Hustler” and 1986’s “The Color of Money”. Eight films get nominated and Carol can’t find its way in there?

Jennifer Lawrence is up for her fourth Best Actress nomination.

The film’s Mexican-born cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, who won a 2015 Oscar for “Birdman” and a 2014 Oscar for “Gravity”, and sound editor Martin Hernandez have also scored nominations in their respective fields. But the Academy missed its opportunity, and they’ve passed each subsequent time DiCaprio has gotten a nomination.

Alicia Vikander picked up a supporting actress nomination for her role as the wife of a transgender pioneer in “The Danish Girl”.

Critics found it to be a noticeable snub for the lead actor and director of the film “Creed”, Michael B. Jordan and Ryan Coogler, respectively, who are both African-American.

George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road followed with 10 nominations, including best picture. The latter has officially become this year’s Little Movie That Could. Once again, #OscarsSoWhite was trending on social media.

Leonardo DiCaprio is nominated for Best Actor at this year’s Oscars.

In addition to Cate Blanchett, she’s up against Brie Larson, Charlotte Rampling and Saoirse Ronan.

Micheal Keaton and Rachel McAdams in “Spotlight”.

For the second year in a row, the list of finalists was criticised. “Straight Outta Compton” and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” were left out of the best picture race, while Ridley Scott, director of best picture nominee “The Martian”, did not make the grade in the director category. In the original category, I want to bet on the tense and inspired writing of Bridge of Spies, however it’s hard to say when it’s competing with the smartly written Ex Machina, the imaginative Inside Out and the emotional Straight Outta Compton. “Sorry, brightest.” It’s likely that Chris Rock, the host of 2016’s edition, will be one of the few people of colour to grace the stage.