Every year, there is one question that returns with Oscars – Will Leonardo Di Caprio win it this time? Or the fate will play its brutal game again. Well, looking at this year’s nomination, one can hope that the story might change. Oscar nominations were announced for this year earlier in the day. The two movies that lead the charts are “The Revenant” and “Mad Max: Fury Road”.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences enthralled these two movies with honors as they were nominated for the Best Picture and the Best Director. The other movies to join this list are “Bridge of Spies,” “Spotlight,” “The Big Short,” “The Martian,” “Brooklyn” and “Room”. Though, it is indeed surprising that movies like “Straight Outta Compton” and “Carol” did not make it to the list.

No black nominees, Will Smith and Idris Elba ignored

Leaving movies like “Straight Outta Compton” will certainly have the committee facing back lashing. Michael B Jordon also did not get a nod for his great performance in Creed whereas Sylvester Stallone made it to the Best Actor nominee list. “The Revenant” got the maximum number of nominations. Apart from the Best Director and the Best Picture, Leonardo Di Caprio has been nominated for his amazing and bone-chilling portrayal of frontiersman. Directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, the movie has been nominated in technical categories that include cinematography and sound mixing. “The Revenant” has 12 nominations in total including the nomination for the Best Supporting Actor for Tom Hardy. His villainous portrayal seems to have been paying off.

The second most honored film was “Mad Max: Fury Road”. Though, most of the nominations of the movie come from technical areas. The movie has been nominated under several technical categories including film editing, costume design and makeup, and hairstyling. “The Martian” followed the list with seven nominations. Though the director of the movie; Ridley Scott, did not receive any nomination. “Spotlight” had six nominations with its two supporting actors, Mark Ruffalo and Rachel McAdams, being nominated in the category. The other directors to make it to the Best Director list were Adam McKay (“The Big Short”) and Lenny Abrahamson (“Room”).

Oscars Nominations see the prominent faces

The acting lists had all the expected big names. Cate Blanchett had her sixth best actress nomination for “Carol”. Jennifer Lawrence has also begun to be a regular on the every year list as she was nominated for the fourth time for “Joy”. The list also included Brie Larson from “Room,” Charlotte Rampling from “45 Years” and Saoirse Ronan from “Brooklyn.” It would be interesting to see if Leonardo Di Caprio takes the Golden Trophy with him this year. The chances seem high. He will be joined by Eddie Redmayne from “The Danish Girl”, Matt Damon from “The Martian” and Micahel Fassbender from “Steve Jobs”. It is strange that the Academy excluded the amazing Will Smith.

It was also surprising to see that Aaron Sorkin was not nominated for the best adapted screenplay for the movie “Steve Jobs”. He won the screenwriting prize for the movie at Golden Globes on Sunday. What was surprising was “Straigh Outta Compton” getting a nod for Best adapted screenplay. But it didn’t look so surprising after the names were declared. All the screenplay writers for “Straight Outta Compton” were white.