![\"revenant-dicaprio-a\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/227\/2016\/01\/revenant-dicaprio-a.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nAlejandro G. I\u00f1\u00e1rritu beat the odds last year when Birdman<\/a><\/i> became the first film to win Best Picture without at least being nominated for its film editing since 1980\u2019s Ordinary People<\/i>. Now, with 12 nominations for The Revenant<\/i> \u2014 the most of any film released last year \u2014 I\u00f1\u00e1rritu may be poised to do something similarly rare, by becoming the first director to win back-to-back awards for his directing since Joseph L. Mankiewicz won for 1949\u2019s A Letter to Three Wives<\/i> and 1950\u2019s All About Eve<\/i>.<\/p>\n Then again, maybe he won\u2019t.<\/p>\n For one thing, The Revenant<\/i> failed to get a nod for its screenplay, and only one film \u2014 Titanic<\/i> (which, like The Revenant<\/i>, starred Leonardo DiCaprio) \u2014 has won Best Picture in the last 50 years without at least being nominated<\/i> for its script.<\/p>\n Plus, The Revenant<\/i> failed to get nominated for the Screen Actors Guild ensemble award<\/a> last month, and only one film in the 20-year history of that award has won the Oscar for Best Picture without a SAG ensemble nomination, i.e. Braveheart<\/i>.<\/p>\n So if we ignore the number<\/i> of nominations, which films have been nominated for all the key indicators (the SAG ensemble award plus Oscar nods for film editing, directing and screenplay)? Only two: Spotlight<\/i>, which has six Oscar nominations overall, and The Big Short<\/i>, which has five. So the odds may favour one of those films.<\/p>\n Or there could be a split. Maybe I\u00f1\u00e1rritu will win best director for the virtuosity of his filmmaking, while Spotlight<\/i> \u2014 a film that is widely admired but has been criticized by some for its supposedly flat direction \u2014 will win best picture. Who knows.<\/p>\n In any case, here are a few other points that jump out at me.<\/p>\n I\u00f1\u00e1rritu has maintained his unbroken streak, going back to 2000\u2019s Amores Perros<\/i>, of getting at least one Oscar nomination for every single feature film he has made.<\/p>\n Mad Max: Fury Road<\/i> has ten nominations, including best picture and best director, for George Miller. When was the last time a pure action film such as this got so many Oscar nods? Raiders of the Lost Ark<\/i>, maybe? (Raiders<\/i> was nominated in eight competitive categories and was also given a special achievement award.)<\/p>\n Miller\u2019s films have been nominated for a few things in the past \u2014 he even won best animated feature for 2006\u2019s Happy Feet<\/i> \u2014 but Mad Max: Fury Road<\/i> is the first entry in the Mad Max<\/i> series to get any love from the Academy in any<\/i> category.<\/p>\n The Best Picture nomination for Mad Max: Fury Road<\/i> also marks the first time that the fourth movie in a franchise<\/a> has ever been considered for this award \u2014 and it marks the second time, following 2010\u2019s Toy Story 3<\/i>, that a sequel has been up for this award without any of its predecessors being nominated for it.<\/p>\n Tom Hardy stars or co-stars in both of the two most-nominated movies.<\/p>\n The Force Awakens<\/i> marks the triumphant return of Star Wars<\/i> to the visual effects category, at least as far as nominations go. It wasn\u2019t even nominated<\/i> in this category<\/a> for Revenge of the Sith<\/i>, and the other two prequels were nominated but lost to The Matrix<\/i> and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers<\/i>. The original trilogy came out before the visual effects category even existed<\/i>, so they had to invent special achievement awards for the effects in those films. Could The Force Awakens<\/i> be the first Star Wars<\/i> film to win in a competitive<\/i> best visual effects showdown?<\/p>\n I\u2019m really happy with the animation category this year. Only one of the nominees is an American computer-generated kids\u2019 movie, and it\u2019s a good one (i.e. Inside Out<\/i>). Anomalisa<\/i> (the first-ever R-rated nominee in this category) and Shaun the Sheep Movie<\/i> (British) are both stop-motion, and Boy and the World<\/i> (Brazil) and When Marnie Was There<\/i> (Japan) are traditional hand-drawn animation.<\/p>\n The nod for Creed<\/i> marks Sylvester Stallone\u2019s second nomination for playing Rocky Balboa, following the original 1976 film. As Scott Feinberg<\/a> notes, the 39 years between those two nominations sets a new record for the longest gap between nominations for playing the same character, beating the 25 years between Paul Newman\u2019s portrayals of \u201cFast Eddie\u201d Felson in 1961\u2019s The Hustler<\/i> and 1986\u2019s The Color of Money<\/i>.<\/p>\n Two issue-oriented documentaries \u2014 The Hunting Ground<\/i> and Racing Extinction<\/i> \u2014 were nominated for best original song but not for best documentary feature.<\/p>\n Come to think of it, none<\/i> of the song nominees were nominated for anything else.<\/p>\n Here are the feature films that have been nominated for Oscars, from those with the most nods to those with only one. The titles of those I have seen are in bold:<\/p>\n 12 nominations<\/b><\/p>\n 10 nominations<\/b><\/p>\n 7 nominations<\/b><\/p>\n 6 nominations<\/b><\/p>\n 5 nominations<\/b><\/p>\n 4 nominations<\/b><\/p>\n 3 nominations<\/b><\/p>\n 2 nominations<\/b><\/p>\n 1 nominations<\/b><\/p>\n Here are a few reasons why this year’s Best Picture race is one of the most unpredictable in recent memory. Includes a complete list of the nominees, grouped by film.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2737,3312,3235,3315,2997,3314,347,3311,3313,206,1732,575],"class_list":["post-38957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-alejandro-g-inarritu","tag-big-short","tag-creed-2015","tag-george-miller","tag-mad-max","tag-mad-max-fury-road","tag-oscars","tag-revenant-2015","tag-spotlight-2015","tag-star-wars","tag-star-wars-episode-vii","tag-sylvester-stallone"],"yoast_head":"\n\n
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