"The Revenant" leads Oscar nomination with 12 nods

Director Alejandro G. Inarritu's "The Revenant" scored a leading 12 Oscar nominations on Thursday morning when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the 88th annual Academy Awards nominations at the AMPAS Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Los Angeles.

"The Revenant" took home the best drama film prize at last Sunday's Golden Globes, while Inarritu was named best director and Leonardo DiCaprio won for best actor in a drama.

George Miller's "Mad Max: Fury Road" on the heels of "The Revenant" with 10 nominations. Both of them well ahead of other contenders. The other best-picture nominees are "The Big Short," "Bridge of Spies," "Brooklyn," "The Martian," "Room" and "Spotlight."

That slate of Oscar best director hopefuls includes Inarritu and Miller, along with Adam McKay for his real estate-crash drama "The Big Short," Lenny Abrahamson for "Room," which is about a mother and young son held captive, and Tom McCarthy for "Spotlight," the story of the Boston Globe's investigation into pedophilia by Catholic priests and a coverup by senior clergy.

"The Martian," which trailed the top two films with seven nominations, picked up a best-actor nomination for Matt Damon as an astronaut stranded alone on Mars. Damon was joined by Bryan Cranston ("Trumbo"), Leonardo DiCaprio ("The Revenant"), Michael Fassbender ("Steve Jobs") and Eddie Redmayne ("The Danish Girl") in that coveted category. Cranston is a first-time nominee, while Redmayne took home an Oscar last year for "The Theory of Everything."

Despite an outcry last year about a lack of diversity in the Academy's choices, all of the nominees in the acting categories this year are white. "Straight Outta Compton," which is about the roots of black hip-hop group NWA, nominated only for its original screenplay.

Best-actress nominees include Cate Blanchett for "Carol," Brie Larson for "Room," Jennifer Lawrence for "Joy," Charlotte Rampling for "45 Years" and Saoirse Ronan for "Brooklyn." At 25, Lawrence is the youngest four-time acting nominee in Oscar history. Blanchett is a two-time winner, while newcomer Larson and veteran Rampling are both first-time nominees.

Alicia Vikander picked up a supporting actress nomination for her role as the wife of a transgender pioneer in "The Danish Girl." Other actresses nominated in the supporting category include Jennifer Jason Leigh ("The Hateful Eight"), Rooney Mara ("Carol"), Rachel McAdams ("Spotlight") and Kate Winslet ("Steve Jobs").

"Carol," the tender portrayal of a female photographer who falls in love with a married older woman in the 1950s' New York, boasted six nominations in total, though it failed to pull one for best picture or director Todd Haynes. The screenplay, adapted from Patricia Highsmith's novel "The Price of Salt," garnered a best adapted screenplay nomination.

Actors vying for the golden statuette for supporting roles include Christian Bale ("The Big Short"), Tom Hardy ("The Revenant"), Mark Ruffalo ("Spotlight"), Mark Rylance ("Bridge of Spies") and Sylvester Stallone ("Creed"). Stallone, who received his first Acting nomination in 1976 for "Rocky," is the sixth person nominated for playing the same role in two different films.

Films nominated for best animated feature include writer/director Charlie Kaufman's downbeat stop motion drama "Anomalisa," "Boy and the World," Disney's "Inside Out," "Shaun the Sheep Movie" and "When Marnie Was There."

Foreign films selected to compete for Oscar gold are Colombia's "Embrace of the Serpent," France's "Mustang," Hungary's "Son of Saul," Jordan's "Theeb" and "A War" from Denmark.

The box office tent pole "Star War: The Force Awakens," the highest grossing film of all time in North America, received five nominations -- for film editing, original score, sound editing, sound mixing and visual effects.

Another record breaker this year is Steven Spielberg, who produced and directed "Bridge of Spies." The film's nomination for best picture is Spielberg's ninth in that category, the most for any individual producer.

The nominations were announced by directors Ang Lee and Guillermo del Toro, actor John Krasinski, and Cheryl Boone Isaacs, president of AMPAS.

The Oscars will be presented at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on Feb. 28, 2016. Chris Rock, the Oscar host in 2005, will host the event for the second time this year. Endit