Oscars: ‘The Revenant’ leads the race with 12 nominations

Mad Max has received ten nominations this year, including Best Special Effects, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Production Design, Best Director and even Best Picture. “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” and hip-hop movie “Straight Outta Compton” were among those not making the cut. The only nominations they did receive – Best Original Screenplay for Compton and Best Supporting Actor for Creed’s Sylvester Stallone – went to white people.

His competition is fairly stiff: others in the best actor category are Bryan Cranston for Trumbo, Matt Damon for The Martian, Michael Fassbender for Steve Jobs and Eddie Redmayne – an Oscar victor a year ago – for The Danish Girl.

For best actress, Carol star Cate Blanchett and Room star Brie Larson, who portrayed a kidnapped mother living in captivity with her son, are seen as the favourites in a category that also includes veteran British actress Charlotte Rampling (45 Years).

Others believed that Will Smith, who critics said gave his best performance in the drama Concussion and got a Golden Globe nod, would automatically get the same love from the Academy that votes on the Oscars.

A year after Alejandro Inarritu’s “Birdman” swept top honors at last year’s Academy Awards, Inarritu will again play a leading role at the Academy Awards with his 1820s revenge thriller “The Revenant”, which landed a leading 12 nominations Thursday. For the latter, it will compete against “Spotlight”, “Ex Machina”, “Bridge of Spies” and “Straight Outta Compton”.

After months of Oscar anticipation and speculation, the story finally shifted on Thursday when the Academy unveiled its 2016 nominations.

But the most disappointing outcome is that, for the second consecutive year, all 20 of the acting nominees are white. But African-American director Ryan Coogler and lead actor Michael B. Jordan were noticeably overlooked. No Idris Elba or Abraham Attah for “Beasts of No Nation”?

Chris Rock, the African-American comedian, film and TV producer, was slated to host this year’s Academy Awards ceremony February 28. Quentin Tarantino also failed to make the list for adapted screenplay and his “Hateful Eight” was omitted from the best picture and best director lists. The miss for “Carol” meant one usual Oscar heavyweight – Harvey Weinstein – won’t have a horse in the best picture race for the first time since 2008.

“The Martian” has bagged seven nominations while “Carol” and “Spotlight” got six each.

Nominating the most huge movie in history (with a domestic box office tally of $820 million and growing) for best picture would have ensured that the Oscars telecast received a big boost in viewership.