The best actress category is being led by double Oscar victor Cate Blanchett “Carol”, actress Brie Larson for “Room”, Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence for biopic “Joy“, Charlotte Rampling for “45 Years” and Saoirse Ronan for “Brooklyn”.
Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight has three nominations (best supporting actress for Jennifer Jason Leigh, best original score for Ennio Morricone; best cinematography for Robert Richardson) but was overlooked for best picture and best director.
Christian Bale was also a Suporting Actor nominees for The Big Short, along with Tom Hardy for The Revenant, Mark Ruffalo in Spotlight and Mark Rylance in Bridge of Spies.
Still with an Oscar nomination in hand and a chance to shoot something a little less challenging, our main hope is that he returns to Max-land refreshed, re-invigorated and ready to get back behind the wheel.
Only the Alejandro Inarritu-Leonardo DiCaprio collaboration The Revenant, with 12, scored more nominations than Mad Max: Fury Road at Thursday’s (12.30am Friday AEDT) Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences ceremony in Beverly Hills. It took Miller almost two decades to see Fury Road to completion.
This list lines up nearly exactly with the Golden Globe nominees for best actor in a drama and with the SAG nominees for best actor, with Will Smith for “Concussion” and Johnny Depp for “Black Mass” being swapped out for Damon.
The 88th Academy Awards, hosted by Chris Rock, will be held at Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre on 28 February.
The foreign language category drew films from Hungary (“Son Of Saul“), France (“Mustang“), Jordan (“Theeb“), Denmark (“A War“) and Colombia (“Embrace the Serpent”).
A record 13 Australians who worked on Mad Max Fury: Road picked up nominations.
Financial crisis drama The Big Short and Star Wars: The Force Awakens are in the running for five awards.
American-made animated films, including “The Peanuts Movie” and “The Good Dinosaur” were shoved aside for more eclectic fare.
Netflix did, however, again break into the documentary category with “What Happened, Miss Simone” and “Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom”.
The journalists are waiting for academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs and directors Ang Lee, Guillermo del Toro and actor John Krasinki to announce nominees ranging from best original song to the films vying for best picture.