By Philippa Hawker
The Revenant leads the nominations at the 88th Academy Awards this year with 12 nominations, closely followed by George Miller's Mad Max: Fury Road with 10.
And this year a record number of Australians will be in the running for an Oscar. Cate Blanchett has been nominated for best actress for Carol, and the Fury Road team has multiple nominees in the technical categories, as well as nominations for Best Picture (George Miller and Doug Mitchell), Best Directing (George Miller), Best Editing (Margaret Sixel) and Best Cinematography (John Seale).
In total, thirteen Australians have been nominated for Academy Awards this year (see below for a full list).
There are eight films in contention for best picture. The Revenant, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Big Short, Bridge of Spies, Brooklyn, The Martian, Room and Spotlight.
Leonardo DiCaprio's The Revenant needs to make $560 million to break even. An Oscar or two should help that.
The Academy chose to leave out box-office record setter Star Wars: The Force Awakens and the critically acclaimed Straight Outta Compton.
It is in the acting categories that The Revenant took the lead over Mad Max: Fury Road. Leonardo DiCaprio was nominated for best actor for The Revenant. It is his sixth nomination, but he is winless so far. His co-star, Tom Hardy, was nominated for best supporting actor.
It is Blanchett's seventh nod; she has already won two Oscars.
The nominations were announced on Thursday morning, Los Angeles time.
Rooney Mara (left) as Therese Belivet and Cate Blanchett as Carol Aird in Carol.Credit: Wilson Webb
The awards will be presented on Sunday February 28 (Monday February 29 Australian time), in a ceremony hosted by Chris Rock.
These thirteen Australians are up for Academy Awards:
Mad Max: Fury Road, starring Tom Hardy as Max, was nominated for 10 Oscars.Credit: Jasin Boland/Warner Bros.
Best Actress: Cate Blanchett for Carol
Plus these nominees for Mad Max: Fury Road:
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu is the only non-white in the running for Best Director his film The Revenant.Credit: Jose Haro
Best Picture: George Miller and Doug Mitchell
Best Director: George Miller
Film director George Miller Miller scored directing and, as producer, best picture nods, and his wife Margaret Sixel was nominated for her editing on the film.Credit: James Brickwood
Cinematography: John Seale
Editing: Margaret Sixel
Hair & Makeup: Damian Martin, Lesley Vanderwalt, Elka Wardega
Production Design: Colin Gibson, Lisa Thompson
Visual Effects: Dan Oliver
Sound Mixing: Ben Osmo
Sound Editing: David White
The nominees for the 2016 Academy Awards are:
Best Picture
The Big Short
Bridge of Spies
Brooklyn
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant
Room
Spotlight
Best Actor
Bryan Cranston, Trumbo
Matt Damon, The Martian
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant
Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs
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
Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies
Sylvester Stallone, Creed
Best Supporting Actress
Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Hateful Eight
Rooney Mara, Carol
Rachel McAdams, Spotlight
Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl
Kate Winslet, Steve Jobs
Best Director
Adam McKay, The Big Short
George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road
Alejandro G. Iñárritu, The Revenant
Lenny Abrahamson, Room
Spotlight, Tom McCarthy
Best Adapted Screenplay
The Big Short, Charles Randolph and Adam McKay
Brooklyn. Nick Hornby
Carol, Phyllis Nagy
The Martian, Drew Goddard
Original Screenplay
Bridge of Spies, Matt Charman and Ethan Coen & Joel Coen
Ex Machina, Alex Garland
Inside Out, screenplay by Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve, Josh Cooley; original story by Pete Docter, Ronnie del Carmen
Spotlight, Josh Singer & Tom McCarthy
Straight Outta Compton, screenplay by Jonathan Herman and Andrea Berloff; story by S. Leigh Savidge & Alan Wenkus and Andrea Berloff
Best Animated Feature
Anomalisa, Charlie Kaufman, Duke Johnson and Rosa Tran
Boy and the World, Alê Abreu
Inside Out, Pete Docter and Jonas Rivera
Shaun the Sheep Movie, Mark Burton and Richard Starzak
When Marnie Was There, Hiromasa Yonebayashi and Yoshiaki Nishimura
Best Documentary Feature
Amy, Asif Kapadia and James Gay-Rees
Cartel Land, Matthew Heineman and Tom Yellin
The Look of Silence, Joshua Oppenheimer and Signe Byrge Sørensen
What Happened, Miss Simone?, Liz Garbus, Amy Hobby and Justin Wilkes
Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom, Evgeny Afineevsky and Den Tolmor
Best Foreign Language film
Embrace of the Serpent, Colombia
Mustang, France
Son of Saul, Hungary
Theeb, Jordan
A War, Denmark
Best Cinematography
Carol, Ed Lachman
The Hateful Eight, Robert Richardson
Mad Max: Fury Road, John Seale
The Revenant, Emmanuel Lubezki
Sicario, Roger Deakins
Best Original Score
Bridge of Spies, Thomas Newman
Carol, Carter Burwell
The Hateful Eight, Ennio Morricone
Sicario, Jóhann Jóhannsson
Star Wars: The Force Awakens, John Williams
Best Original Song
Earned It from Fifty Shades of Grey
Manta Ray from Racing Extinction
Simple Song #3 from Youth
Til It Happens To You from The Hunting Ground
"Writing's On The Wall" from Spectre
Best Visual Effects
Ex Machina, Andrew Whitehurst, Paul Norris, Mark Ardington and Sara Bennett
Mad Max: Fury Road, Andrew Jackson, Tom Wood, Dan Oliver and Andy Williams
The Martian, Richard Stammers, Anders Langlands, Chris Lawrence and Steven Warner
The Revenant, Rich McBride, Matthew Shumway, Jason Smith and Cameron Waldbauer
Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Neal Scanlan and Chris Corbould
Click here for a complete list of Academy Award nominees.
- With Daniel Fallon