Oscar nominations announced: Disney scores several major nods amid some surprises

in Disney, Entertainment, Movies

chewbacca-harrison-ford-the-force-awakens

Credit: Lucasfilm

This morning, the Academy Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the Oscar nominations for this year. “The Revenant,” “Mad Max: Fury Road,” and “The Martian” are the big winners, with 12, 9, and 8 nominations respectively. Disney should be happy as well though, with “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” scoring 5 nominations,  and “Bridge of Spies” receiving nominations in 6 categories including Best Picture. “Inside Out” also found room in the Best Animated Feature, as well as Best Original Screenplay races. “Sanjay’s Super Team” got nominated in the Best Animated Short category. “Cinderella” found its way into the Best Costume race as well.

Inside Out 3

In what is likely a bittersweet day at Disney, films distributed by or produced by Disney had a pretty strong showing at the Academy Award nominations. That said, the big misses for Disney were no Best Picture nominations for “Inside Out” or “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” The lack of other below the line Oscar nominations for “Inside Out” including sound and score, really should have been the clue that “Inside Out” was not going to make the cut. Under the new system, where only first place votes count, it is obvious that animated features are working from a disadvantage. Another surprising miss was “The Good Dinosaur” but we did address the issues that could prevent its nomination a few weeks ago.

Force Awakens X Wings

The last race that was frustrating for Disney was the Visual Effects race. They scored with “The Force Awakens,” but missed with “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “Ant-Man,” and “Tomorrowland.” I doubt they expected to only go 1 for 4 when they had made the 10 film bake-off. Even worse, Industrial Light and Magic did the visual effects for nominee “The Revenant,” so they directly knocked out Disney’s nominees. I think they’ll take the credit, and frankly Disney should take the award at the end of the day.

Bridgeof-Spies-Mark Rylance

Still “Star Wars” not only scored the Visual Effects nomination, but also found space in Film Editing, Score, Sound Mixing and Sound Editing. “Bridge of Spies” also got the “Best Picture” nomination, as well as Supporting Actor for Mark Rylance, Score, Sound Mixing, Production Design and Original Screenplay. These films gained a combined 11 nominations, but only overlap in Score and Mixing, which is good for Disney’s chances to bring home many gold statues.

Steve Jobs Michael Fassbender

Universal has got to be scratching its head as well. After a record breaking year at the box office, they are left without nominations for “Furious 7” (which should have received a nomination in song), no nominations for “Crimson Peak,” no “Jurassic World,” and only a screenplay nomination for “Straight Outta Compton.” Only one of the “Fifty Shades of Grey” songs made the cut, but that was really was realistically the film’s ceiling unless “Love Me Like You Do” had snuck through as well.  “Steve Jobs” scored in the acting categories, but Aaron Sorkin was left out of the screenplay race. They had a great year with the public, but I doubt this was what they expected this morning.

Straight outta Compton

Overall, the nominations were well distributed with some weird films missing the cut in what should have been easy conversations. Still, it was a good morning for Disney. In the next day or so, we’ll review our predictions and begin to break down the future races. In the meantime we’ve included all the nominees below. Which ones are most exciting for you? Let us hear your thoughts in the comments!

Below are the nominees.

Best Picture:

  • The Big Short
  • Bridge of Spies
  • Brooklyn
  • Mad Max: Fury Road
  • The Martian
  • The Revenant
  • Room
  • Spotlight

Best Director:

  • Adam McKay – The Big Short
  • Alejandro González Iñárritu – The Revenant
  • Lenny Abramson – Room
  • Tom McCarthy – Spotlight
  • George Miller- Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Actor:

  • Bryan Cranston – Trumbo
  • Matt Damon – The Martian
  • Michael Fassbender – Steve Jobs
  • Leonardo DiCaprio – The Revenant
  • Eddie Redmayne – The Danish Girl

Best Actress:

  • Cate Blanchett – Carol
  • Brie Larson – Room
  • Jennifer Lawrence – Joy
  • Charlotte Rampling – 45 Years
  • Saoirse Ronan – Brooklyn

Best Supporting Actor:

  • Christian Bale – The Big Short
  • Tom Hardy – The Revenant
  • Mark Ruffalo – Spotlight
  • Sylvester Stallone – Creed
  • Mark Rylance – Bridge of Spies

Best Supporting Actress:

  • Jennifer Jason Leigh – Hateful Eight
  • Rooney Mara – Carol
  • Rachel McAdams – Spotlight
  • Kate Winslet – Steve Jobs
  • Alicia Vikander – The Danish Girl

Best Original Screenplay:

  • Matt Charman, Joel & Ethan Coen – Bridge of Spies
  • Alex Garland – Ex Machina
  • Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve, Josh Cooley, Ronnie del Carmin – Inside Out
  • Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy – Spotlight
  • Andrea Berloff, Jonathan Herman, S. Leigh Savidge, Alan Wenkus -Straight Outta Compton

Best Adapted Screenplay:

  • Nick Hornby – Brooklyn
  • Adam McKay and Charles Randolph – The Big Short
  • Drew Goddard – The Martian
  • Phyllis Nagy – Carol
  • Emma Donoghue – Room

Best Animated Feature Film:

  • Anomalisa
  • Inside Out
  • Boy and the World
  • Shaun of the Sheep
  • When Marnie Was There

Best Foreign Language Film:

  • Embrace of the Serpent
  • Mustang
  • A War
  • Son of Saul
  • Theeb

Best Documentary — Feature:

  • Amy
  • Cartel Land
  • The Look of Silence
  • What Happened Miss Simone?
  • Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom

Best Documentary — Short Subject:

  • Body Team 12
  • Chau, Beyond the Lines
  • Last Day of Freedom
  • Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah
  • A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness

Best Live Action Short Film:

  • Day One
  • Everything Will Be Okay
  • Stutterer
  • Ave Maria
  • Shok

Best Animated Short Film:

  • Sanjay’s Super Team
  • An Object at Rest
  • If I Was God…
  • Bear Story
  • World of Tomorrow

Best Original Score:

  • The Hateful Eight
  • Sicario
  • Star Wars: The Force Awakens
  • Bridge of Spies
  • Carol

Best Original Song:

  • “Earned It” – 50 Shades of Gray
  • “Writing’s on the Wall” – Spectre
  • “Manta Ray” – Racing Extinction
  • “Simple Song #3” – Youth
  • “Till it Happens to You” – The Hunting Ground

Best Sound Editing:

  • Mad Max: Fury Road
  • The Martian
  • The Revenant
  • Sicario
  • Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Best Sound Mixing:

  • Bridge of Spies
  • Mad Max: Fury Road
  • The Martian
  • The Revenant
  • Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Best Production Design:

  • Mad Max: Fury Road
  • The Martian
  • The Revenant
  • Bridge of Spies
  • The Danish Girl

Best Cinematography:

  • Edward Lachman – Carol
  • Robert Richardson – The Hateful Eight
  • John Seale – Mad Max: Fury Road
  • Emmanuel Lubezki – The Revenant
  • Roger Deakins – Sicario

Best Makeup and Hairstyling:

  • Mad Max: Fury Road
  • The Revenant
  • The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared

Best Costume Design:

  • Carol
  • Cinderella
  • The Danish Girl
  • Mad Max: Fury Road
  • The Revenant

Best Film Editing:

  • The Big Short
  • Mad Max: Fury Road
  • The Revenant
  • Spotlight
  • Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Best Visual Effects:

  • The Revenant
  • Star Wars: The Force Awakens
  • Mad Max: Fury Road
  • Ex Machina
  • The Martian

View Comments (2)