Oscar Nominations

Oscar nominations came out today.

Leaving out the short and the Foreign, Animated, Documentary Feature categories, since all the nominees have a total of one nomination, here are the number of nominations per film (those checked I've seen):

• [ ] 12 - The Revenant
• [x] 10 - Mad Max: Fury Road
• [x] 7 - The Martian
• [x] 6 - Spotlight
• [ ] 6 - Carol
• [x] 6 - Bridge of Spies
• [x] 5 - The Big Short
• [x] 5 - Star Wars: The Force Awakens
• [ ] 4 - The Danish Girl
• [x] 4 - Room
• [x] 3 - The Hateful Eight
• [x] 3 - Sicario
• [x] 3 - Brooklyn
• [x] 2 - Steve Jobs
• [x] 2 - Ex Machina
• [ ] 1 - Youth
• [x] 1 - Trumbo
• [ ] 1 - The Hunting Ground
• [ ] 1 - The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared
• [ ] 1 - Straight Outta Compton
• [x] 1 - Spectre
• [ ] 1 - Racing Extinction
• [x] 1 - Joy
• [x] 1 - Inside Out
• [x] 1 - Fifty Shades of Grey
• [x] 1 - Creed
• [ ] 1 - Cinderella
• [ ] 1 - 45 Years

While there's no category where I've seen every film, if I see just three, The Revenant, Carol and The Danish Girl I will have completed 13 categories and seen everything with more than one nomination. Adding 45 Years and Straight Outta Compton and I add two more complete categories for all the major ones. I think that's my best start ever.

I'm surprised the leading film is The Revenant with 12 nominations. One it really doesn't interest me. Two I've only heard of two actors in it (and they both got nominated). So it's shut of actress categories, didn't get for music and didn't get for writing; yet it still got 12 nominations, basically in every other category it could.

In Best Picture, they only nominated 8 films meaning two more slots could have been used and the obvious choices were Star Wars and Carol. That's surprising. Star Wars is on track to be the biggest grossing film of all time (not adjusted for inflation) and it's not one of the ten best films of the year? That's crazy, everyone I know who saw it loved it.

I loved The Big Short, but I would have given a best directing nomination to Ridley Scott for The Martian over Adam McKay.

Supporting Actor is an odd category this year. I saw Bridge of Spies and I have no idea who Mark Rylance is. I would have given that spot to Nicholas Hoult for Mad Max. There's no way you forget Nux in that film. I had heard no buzz for Tom Hardy in The Revenant but I'll reserve judgement until I see it. I think Jacob Tremblay was deserving for Room. It will be interesting to pick this category as Stallone is the sentimental favorite and everyone else is more qualified.

It was a good year for actresses. The Best Actress nominees were all basically good picks. In supporting I would have picked Charlize Theron over Rachel McAdams.

I'm kinda thrilled that Drew Goddard is now an Oscar nominee. I'm happy Aaron Sorkin didn't get a nom for Steve Jobs.

I'm surprised Suffragette and Far from the Maddening Crowd were shut out, even in Costumes or Production Design. I'm happy that Black Mass was.

Visual Effects is filled with good movies, not just big action pieces from the summer. Jurassic World, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant Man, Jupiter Ascending all were shut out. I fell like in other years San Andreas could have gotten a visual effects nom, but not this year. I'm really happy there's no Transformers nomination I'm forced to sit through to complete a category.

I wish Me and Earl and the Dying Girl got something (maybe screenplay), I thought it was great.

Also I wish Call Me Lucky got a Documentary Feature nomination. I saw three of the nominees and Amy and The Look of Silence were both amazing, but Call Me Lucky was way better than Cartel Land. I hadn't heard of either What Happened, Miss Simone? or Winter on Fire.

It would have been kinda cool if The Tribe got a Best Foreign Language nomination (it was in sign language and not subtitled and was one of the most brutal films I've ever sat through).