You can tell it was a good year at the movies when so many nomination-worthy pictures and performers got snubbed by the Academy.
Alejandro Iñárritu’s The Revenant walked off with the most nominations (12), followed by Mad Max: Fury Road, the type of major studio commercial hit that the expansion of the Best Picture category aimed at including. It pulled in 10 nominations, but none in the performance races.
The loudest tongue-clucking was over the complete lack of performers of color among the nominees, for the second straight year. After all, the field had several deserving actors, including Will Smith (Concussion), Idris Elba (Beasts of No Nation), Michael B. Jordan (Creed) and most of the cast of Straight Outta Compton.
This year’s 87th annual Academy Awards ceremony, to be telecast on Sunday, Feb. 28, will be emceed by Chris Rock. So look for some pointed comments from him about the lily-white crowd of nominees and look for lots of African-American presenters in an attempt to paint the Hollywood community as racially diverse.
Instead of the maximum of 10 Best Picture nominees, the complex formula for inclusion for the top award only yielded eight: The Big Short, Bridge of Spies, Brooklyn, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Martian, The Revenant, Room and Spotlight. Probably the most glaring omission from that slate is the well-reviewed 1950s lesbian love story Carol, whose director Todd Haynes also failed to be embraced by Oscar. Also deserving but snubbed were Inside Out, arguably the best animated film from the Pixar studio, the Steve Jobs biopic and The Danish Girl.
Going into Thursday morning’s nominations announcement, this looked like this would be Ridley Scott’s year to win the Best Directing prize, for his impressive work on The Martian. (No, Golden Globes, the movie is not a comedy or musical.) Presumably his slot went to Lenny Abrahamson (Room), a surprising, but savvy choice. In the category with Abrahamson are Adam McKay (The Big Short), George Miller (Mad Max), Iñárritu (The Revenant) and Tom McCarthy (Spotlight), all Best Picture competitors.
Even though Jennifer Lawrence was given a Golden Globe for her starring role in Joy, her Oscar nomination was still an eyebrow-raiser. Record-keepers should note that the 25-year-old Lawrence is the youngest performer ever to receive four Academy nods. Still, she will have to settle for the nomination, since the award seems headed for the mantelpiece of Brie Larson (Room).
The Best Performance by an Actor category is extremely competitive among five Oscar-worthies: Bryan Cranston (Trumbo), Matt Damon (The Martian), Leonardo DiCaprio (The Revenant), Michael Fassbender (Steve Jobs) and Eddie Redmayne (The Danish Girl). One could argue that Johnny Depp (Black Mass) or Smith (Concussion) deserve nominations for their work, but it would be tough to decide whom to kick off to make room for them.
If Redmayne had not won last year for The Theory of Everything, he would be a shoo-in for his wholly different performance as transgendering Einar Wegener. Instead, expect the Oscar to go to DiCaprio, chiefly for the physically taxing shoot on The Revenant.
A very popular winner at the Golden Globes was Sylvester Stallone, playing his longtime character Rocky Balboa in Creed. He was Academy-nominated for playing the same character almost 40 years ago and he looks poised to add some Oscar gold for his supporting performance. That is particularly unfortunate for Mark Rylance, who deserves to win for playing Russian spy Rudolf Abel in Bridge of Spies. It was a long shot, but it would have been terrific if young Jason Tremblay had made the cut for his screen debut in Room. For my money, it is the best juvenile performance ever captured on film.
But the single most egregious snub this year is surely Helen Mirren for her deliciously venal supporting turn as Hedda Hopper in Trumbo. Taking her place, as I see it, is Jennifer Jason Leigh in a cartoonish performance as a convicted murderess in The Hateful Eight. Or one could argue that front-runner Rooney Mara is really one of the co-leads in Carol and does not deserve to be in the Supporting Actress category. And with a better campaign for the underviewed and underappreciated Clouds of Sils Maria, Kristin Stewart might have gotten a nomination. But perhaps too many Academy members still recall her wooden performances in the Twilight series.
And in a final note of trivia, it should be noted that John Williams picked up his 50th Oscar nomination for his (largely recycled) music score to Star Wars: The Force Awakens. That puts him only nine nods away from the record holder, Walt Disney, who is credited with 59 nominations. Star Wars failed to earn recognition as a Best Picture or for its director, J.J. Abrams. It did walk off with five nominations, mostly in technical categories, and will have to console itself with having the largest domestic box office of all time.