2015 Oscar Nominations
By Michael Walls-Kelly
This year’s Oscar nominations have been a bit scattershot, which was expected. 2015 was full of really well-rounded movies that were accessible and enjoyable. There weren’t a lot of Oscar contenders that alienated voters, but I’d argue that there weren’t a lot that voters absolutely loved either. There aren’t many agreed-upon frontrunners in the main categories, which can be exciting.
The Revenant leads the pack with 12 nominations and Mad Max: Fury Road delightfully follows close behind with 10. The MVP of the Oscar season is Domnhall Gleeson who was in four nominated movies – Brooklyn, Ex Machina, The Revenant and Star Wars: The Force Awakens – which earned a total of 22 nominations. He’s been putting in solid work for years so hopefully 2015 was the year he finally broke into the mainstream. Another interesting development is the apparent strength of Room, a smaller picture that ended up breaking into the Best Actress, Best Picture and most surprisingly, Best Director.
One unexpected – but welcome – surprise of the nominations was the strength of the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress categories, especially when compared to the Actor categories. It was a great year for performances from women and I could easily pick another 5 or 10 actresses to add in each category that would be just as worthy. Emily Blunt in Sicario specifically deserved a nomination, but it’s hard to pick someone I’d want to bump.
A major disappointment to me was the almost total snub of Creed. Other than the expected and deserved nomination of Sylvester Stallone, Creed wasn’t able to pick anything else up. I think Ryan Coogler deserved a nomination for Best Director, Michael B. Jordan deserved a nomination for Best Actor and Maryse Alberti deserved a nomination for Best Cinematography. Oh, and a Best Picture nod wouldn’t have been unwelcome either.
It’s easy – and pretty accurate – to say “awards don’t matter”, “the Oscars are irrelevant” etc. But they’re also pretty fun to grouse about. I’ve listed some of the bigger nominations below.
Best Picture
Bridge of Spies
Brooklyn
Mad Max: Fury Road
Room
Spotlight
The Big Short
The Martian
The Revenant
Best Actor
Bryan Cranston, Trumbo
Eddie Redmayne, The Danish Girl
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant
Matt Damon, The Martian
Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs
Best Actress
Brie Larson, Room
Cate Blanchett, Carol
Charlotte Rampling, 45 Years
Jennifer Lawrence, Joy
Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn
Best Supporting Actor
Christian Bale, The Big Short
Mark Ruffalo, Spotlight
Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies
Sylvester Stallone, Creed
Tom Hardy, The Revenant
Best Supporting Actress
Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl
Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Hateful Eight
Kate Winslet, Steve Jobs
Rachel McAdams, Spotlight
Rooney Mara, Carol
Best Director
George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road
Lenny Abrahamson, Room
Tom McCarthy, Spotlight
Adam McKay, The Big Short
Alejandro G. Iñárritu, The Revenant
Best Cinematography
Ed Lachman, Carol
John Seale, Mad Max: Fury Road
Roger Deakins, Sicario
Robert Richardson, The Hateful Eight
Emmanuel Lubezki, The Revenant
Best Animated Feature
Anomalisa
Boy and the World
Inside Out
Shaun the Sheep Movie
When Marnie Was There
A full list of the nominees in all categories is available at http://oscar.go.com/nominees. The 88th Academy Awards airs on February 28, 2016.
