The 88th annual Academy Award nominations are out as of this morning. Like anyone else with an internet connection, I’ve got opinions, I mean I guess I do. There are many more important things in the world. Let’s look at the bright side. I’m pleased to know Chris Rock will be hosting the award ceremony, which will broadcast live on February 28th, 2016. I’m pleased to see MAD MAX: FURY ROAD all over the place. I’m pleased to see a few other things. I’m confused by more than a few of these nominations, mainly because when there are that many white people on a list, it officially qualifies as an avalanche. But that’s how it tends to go with these things. I know now why you care about the Oscars, but it’s something I can never do.

 

 

BEST PICTURE

THE BIG SHORT

BRIDGE OF SPIES

BROOKLYN

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD

THE MARTIAN 

THE REVENANT

ROOM

SPOTLIGHT

 

My choice is FURY ROAD, obviously, but my endorsement tends to be the kiss of death in political races. Keep in mind this is a voting bloc that named fucking BIRDMAN the best picture last year, when SELMA was right there ripe for the picking. There are good movies on this list but I root for MAD MAX because it’s so rare that we get big-studio genre movies (let alone sequels!) that are remotely this objectively high-quality, and that’s such a big thing for people like me and websites like this one.

 

 

BEST ACTOR

Bryan Cranston, TRUMBO

Matt Damon, THE MARTIAN 

Leonardo DiCaprio, THE REVENANT

Michael Fassbender, STEVE JOBS

Eddie Redmayne, THE DANISH GIRL

 

Sort of feels like they’re gearing up to hand it directly to DiCaprio, huh?

 

BEST ACTRESS

Cate Blanchett, CAROL

Brie Larson, ROOM

Jennifer Lawrence, JOY

Charlotte Rampling, 45 YEARS

Saoirse Ronan, BROOKLYN

This is a nice category, to my eyes. I’ll pull for Charlotte Rampling because I’ve loved her since ORCA, but almost anyone here is worthy. Brie Larson is pretty great. Saoirse Ronan is from the Bronx, did you know that?

 

 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Christian Bale, THE BIG SHORT

Tom Hardy, THE REVENANT

Mark Ruffalo, SPOTLIGHT

Mark Rylance, BRIDGE OF SPIES

Sylvester Stallone, CREED

 

Gotta be Stallone. I mean it’s legitimately insane and borderline criminal that Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan aren’t in the running, which is precisely why the Oscars are so silly, but if they need to matter in this dumb culture than this has got to go to Stallone. He deserves it for going with Ryan Coogler on this one. Also, Tom Hardy’s best supporting role this year was in MAD MAX: FURY ROAD. To presume otherwise is folly.

 

 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Jennifer Jason Leigh, THE HATEFUL EIGHT

Rooney Mara, CAROL

Rachel McAdams, SPOTLIGHT

Alicia Vikander, THE DANISH GIRL

Kate Winslet, STEVE JOBS

 

Jennifer Jason Leigh all day. Whatever you think about that movie she’s truly phenomenal in it, and she’s been so great for so long that you can’t go wrong throwing any award at her. If not her, then Rooney Mara, because she’s given a world-class performance several times before and been overlooked by this show.

 

DIRECTING

Adam McKay, THE BIG SHORT

George Miller, MAD MAX: FURY ROAD

Alejandro G. Iñárritu, THE REVENANT

Lenny Abrahamson, ROOM

Tom McCarthy, SPOTLIGHT

 

Again, I love seeing George Miller’s name on a highfalutin’ list like this, and he’s my guy, but I also like seeing Adam McKay on there, and Tom McCarthy’s been doing solid work for quite a while now. So if not George, then those guys. But George.

 

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

ANOMALISA

BOY AND THE WORLD

INSIDE OUT

SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE

WHEN MARNIE WAS THERE

 

ANOMALISA. It’s stop-motion animation. ANOMALISA. Could I get a date on Friday?

 

COSTUME DESIGN

CAROL

CINDERELLA

THE DANISH GIRL

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD

THE REVENANT

 

FURY ROAD. Even those meager scraps of cloth covering the wives up there tell you plenty about their individual characters. That’s story through costuming.

 

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

AMY

CARTEL LAND

THE LOOK OF SILENCE

WHAT HAPPENED, MISS SIMONE?

WINTER ON FIRE

 

It’s got to be either THE LOOK OF SILENCE or WHAT HAPPENED, MISS SIMONE? — honestly, I’m not sure I could choose, so it’s a good job nobody gives me a vote. 

 

 

DOCUMENTARY SHORT

BODY TEAM

CHAU, BEYOND THE LINES

CLAUDE LANZMANN

A GIRL IN THE RIVER: THE PRICE OF FORGIVENESS

LAST DAY OF FREEDOM

 

Unfortunately I haven’t seen any of these, but I would like to. That’s always how it is with this category, isn’t it?

 

 

MAKEUP AND HAIR STYLING

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD

THE HUNDRED-YEAR-OLD MAN WHO CLIMBED OUT THE WINDOW AND DISAPPEARED

THE REVENANT

 

Couldn’t come up with more than three? How rude. At least they’ll do the right thing and give it to FURY ROAD, right?

 

 

ORIGINAL SONG

“Earned It” — FIFTY SHADES OF GREY

“Manta Ray” — RACING EXTINCTION

“Simple Song #3” — YOUTH

“Til It Happens to You” — THE HUNTING GROUND

“Writing’s on the Wall” — SPECTRE

 

Wow, this is so not my thing. So weird how they couldn’t find room for anything from STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON.

 

 

ANIMATED SHORT

BEAR STORY

PROLOGUE

SANJAY’S SUPER TEAM

WE CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT COSMOS

WORLD OF TOMORROW

Haven’t seen any. Been hearing good things about WORLD OF TOMORROW lately.

 

 

SOUND EDITING

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD

THE REVENANT

SICARIO

SPOTLIGHT

STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS

 

One of the most misunderstood fields there is — even by me, and unlike most jerks writing about movies on the internet, I’ve actually worked in post-production. Again I would favor FURY ROAD here as everywhere else, because to me it was the most seamless and immersive film of the year, but please understand that at least half the people who will weigh in on this subject are just winging it.

 

FILM EDITING

THE BIG SHORT

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD

THE REVENANT

SPOTLIGHT

STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS

Again, MAD MAX: FURY ROAD. I wasn’t there but the degree of difficulty they very clearly overcame on that project was Olympic-level. It’s a miracle, like the triple-Lindy. I like SPOTLIGHT and THE BIG SHORT and even STAR WARS for this award, but I’d give it to FURY ROAD if I had my druthers or if I knew what druthers were so I could give them to FURY ROAD.

 

 

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT

MUSTANG

SON OF SAUL

THEEB

A WAR

The complaint, as always, is that it’s not as easy for a guy like me to get access to some of these films. It’s certainly also true that most of the foreign movies I watch are horror movies or kung-fu films, and that’s not what usually goes down at the Oscars. Long story short, I haven’t seen any of these movies. SON OF SAUL has the most name recognition with me, and since it’s a Holocaust movie it’s got a great shot at the gold (I’m a Jew so I’m allowed to be cynical about these matters).

 

ORIGINAL SCORE

BRIDGE OF SPIES

CAROL 

THE HATEFUL EIGHT

SICARIO

STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS

 

If you’ve ever read anything I’ve written for Daily Grindhouse, chances are you can already tell which score I favor in this category without me being repetitive and saying the name. To Academy voters, I’d say you can’t go wrong with a vote for the greatest film composer ever.

 

PRODUCTION DESIGN

BRIDGE OF SPIES

THE DANISH GIRL

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD

THE MARTIAN

THE REVENANT

MAD MAX: BROKEN RECORD. That said, I greatly admire Jack Fisk for his work with Terrence Malick and Paul Thomas Anderson, so this is one of the few places it won’t ache as badly when THE REVENANT swipes all of FURY ROAD‘s rightful rewards.

 

VISUAL EFFECTS

EX MACHINA

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD

THE MARTIAN

THE REVENANT

STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS

 

If I were an Academy voter, I think it’s clear by now that I’d put FURY ROAD down in every last category, even the ones for which it wasn’t nominated. That said, part of me hopes EX MACHINA has a fair shot here. (And no movie with something as wack as Supreme Leader Snoke should get to beat either of those two, but I’ve got a bad feeling about this.)

 

 

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

THE BIG SHORT

BROOKLYN

CAROL

THE MARTIAN

ROOM

I didn’t like the book at all, so I’ve got to go with THE MARTIAN for level of accomplishment, but I’d be pulling for Drew Goddard regardless.

 

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

BRIDGE OF SPIES

EX MACHINA

INSIDE OUT

SPOTLIGHT

STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON

This is one of the most fascinating, frustrating categories out of the entire deal. I suppose I’d favor SPOTLIGHT here, although EX MACHINA would be a nice pie-in-the-sky to strive towards.

 

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

CAROL

THE HATEFUL EIGHT

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD

THE REVENANT

SICARIO

 

Honestly, this is the one category where everyone wins, because everyone nominated easily should. A vote for SICARIO is a vote for Roger Deakins, so that might be the smart way to go, but then again John Seale came out of retirement to shoot MAD MAX: FURY ROAD and oh my God what a beautiful job he did. Even THE REVENANT, which I can’t rightly root for otherwise, looks gorgeous. Whatever my problems are with the director’s movies, he always gets the best out of his DPs. CAROL and THE HATEFUL EIGHT are eminently worthy as well. So this field’s got me feeling benevolent. Nice place to end. See you in February.

 

 

 

— JON ABRAMS.

 

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Tags: Academy Awards, Awards, Chris Rock, Oscars, Quentin Kenihan