Index | Pic | Dir | Actress | Actor | Supp Actress | Supp Actor | Foreign |Screenplays | Visual | Aural |Animation
88th Oscars. Oscar Contenders of 2015 - For prediction, discussion, entertainment purposes only
Best Pictures Displayed in Alpha Order
Plus Plenty of Stats, "How'd They Get Nominated" Fun, and Various Rankings
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| THE BIG SHORT Adam McKay (Paramount) Dec 11th |
BRIDGE OF SPIES Steven Spielberg (Disney) Oct 16th |
BROOKLYN John Crowley (Fox Searchlight) Nov 4th |
MAD MAX FURY ROAD George Miller (Warner Bros) May 15th |
THE MARTIAN Ridley Scott (Fox) Oct 2nd |
| also: Director, Supporting Actor, Screenplay, & Editing | also: Supporting Actor, Screenplay, Production , Score, & Mixing |
also: Actress, Screenplay |
also Director, VFX, Editing, Cinemato-graphy, Production, Makeup, Costume, Sound Editing & Mixing |
also: Actor, Screenplay, Production, VFX, Sound Editing, & Mixing |
| A satirical comedy about the men who saw the housing bubble financial crisis coming... | Steven Spielberg's cold war drama about a lawyer tasked with trading an enemy spy for a POW | A moving immigration drama, based on the best seller about a young Irish girl creating a new life in New York | George Miller's return to the franchise that made his name. Once more into the postapocalyptic fray | Ridley Scott's crowd pleaser about a stranded botanist on Mars and a rescue mission to save him |
| How'd They Get Nominated? | ||||
| zeitgeist rage, spoonfuls of sugar (comedy, celebrities) to make medicine go down |
cast and crew pedigree, optimism, your classy old school option, star charisma |
love for best seller, emotional resonance for anyone who's ever left home (i.e. everyone) |
cinematic spectacle, absurd commitment to craft, thematic hooks for ongoing media interest, time to settle in as "Best" |
crowdpleaser populist appeal, optimism, lightness of tone, star charisma |
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| THE REVENANT (Fox) Dec 25th |
ROOM (A24) October 16th |
SPOTLIGHT (Open Road) Nov 6th |
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| also Director, Cinematography, Production, VFX, Makeup, Costume, Editing, Sound Editing, and Mixing | also: Director, Actress, and Adapted Screenplay | also: Director, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Screenplay, and Editing |
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| Iñárritu's brutal frontier vengeance thriller about a fur trader mauled by a bear and left for dead by his unfaithful companions |
An adaptation of the bestseller in which a mother and her son, raised in captivity, try to adjust to the real world |
the true story of journalists investigated the Catholic Church's cover up of child molestations in 90s era Boston |
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| How'd They Get Nominated | ||||
| ambition, cinematic craft, "raw bison liver!", Oscar's Inaritu fever, | intimacy of acting, awesome chemistry, genuinely cathartic | true story importance, sober careful storytelling skirts bombast, the ensemble cast, pitch perfect ode to work ethic | ||
| RANDOM TRIVIA | ||||
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| SPOTLIGHT No film about journalism has won Best Picture since Gentleman's Agreement (1947) -- and most since then have been about TV journalism. Can Spotlight change the losing streak? |
ROOM is the first Best Picture nominee for everyone involved with the exception of actor William H Macy (Seabiscuit, Fargo) and Danny Cohen the DP (Kings Speech, Les Miz). Yes, it's even Joan Allen's first "Best Picture"! |
THE REVENANT All of Inaritu's features have been nominated for at least 1 Oscar. If he wins, Inarittu will join John Ford and Joseph L Mackiewicz as the only consecutive Best Director winners. But no director has ever directed two consecutive Best Pic winners. |
THE MARTIAN Despite several film classics this is actually only Ridley Scott's second Best Picture nominee. The first, Gladiator (2000), won the prize. |
MAD MAX FURY ROAD The only live-action sequel to be nominated for Best Picture when the original film in the series wasn't. Only the second film ever to be so nominated (Toy Story 3 is the other one) |
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| BROOKLYN This is 21 yr old Saoirse Ronan's 16th film and it's already her 3rd Best Picture nominee (Grand Budapest Hotel and Atonement were also nominated) |
BRIDGE OF SPIES Steve Spielberg's 10th film to be nominated for Best Picture. He's only three away from the all time record (William Wyler has 13) |
THE BIG SHORT 3 for 3, eh? The nonfiction bestselling author Michael Lewis (Moneyball, The Blind Side) has had three of his films adapted for the screen in the past six years. ALL were Best Picture nominated |
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| RANKINGS | ||||
| Nomination Count Rank | Box Office Rank | Manly Manliness Rank (Oscar Drools 4 Machismo) |
Rotten Tomatoes / Meta Critic Scores |
Nathaniel's Rank |
| REVENANT (12) |
MARTIAN ($228) |
REVENANT | SPOTLIGHT (97/93) |
MAD MAX (A) |
| MAD MAX (10) |
REVENANT ($175) 🔺 |
BIG SHORT |
MAD MAX (97/89) | ROOM (A) |
| MARTIAN (7) |
MAD MAX ($153) |
MARTIAN |
BROOKLYN (98/87) |
BROOKLYN (A-) |
| SPOTLIGHT (6) |
BRIDGE SPIES ($72) |
MAD MAX |
ROOM (97/86) | SPOTLIGHT (B+) |
| BRIDGE SPIES (6) |
BIG SHORT ($69) 🔺 |
BRIDGE |
MARTIAN (93/80) |
BRIDGE (B) |
| THE BIG SHORT (5) |
SPOTLIGHT ($41) |
SPOTLIGHT |
BRIDGE (91/81) |
MARTIAN (B) |
| ROOM (4) |
BROOKLYN ($37) |
ROOM | BIG SHORT (88/81) |
BIG SHORT (C+) |
| BROOKLYN (3) |
ROOM ($14) |
BROOKLYN | REVENANT (81/77) |
REVENANT (C) |
| RANKINGS | ||||
| Longest to Shortest |
MPAA (guesswork on 'hardness' of rating) | How Well They Pass The Bechdel Test (via WSJ) | Number of Deaths |
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| REVENANT (156) |
REVENANT (R) | BROOKLYN (pass) | MAD MAX (50+) | |
| MARTIAN (144) |
MAD MAX (R) | MAD MAX (pass) | REVENANT (30+) | |
| BRIDGE SPIES (141) |
BIG SHORT (R) | ROOM (pass) | BRIDGE OF SPIES (3?) | |
| BIG SHORT (130) |
SPOTLIGHT (R) | SPOTLIGHT (debatable pass - we'd argue fail) | BROOKLYN (1) | |
| SPOTLIGHT (128) |
ROOM (R) | THE MARTIAN (surprising fail) | SPOTLIGHT (0 but talk of suicide) | |
| MAD MAX (120) |
MARTIAN (PG-13) | BIG SHORT (fail) | THE BIG SHORT (0 but talk of suicide) | |
| ROOM (118) |
BRIDGE OF SPIES (PG-13) | BRIDGE OF SPIES (fail) | ROOM (0 but talk of suicide) | |
| BROOKLYN (111) |
BROOKLYN (PG-13) | REVENANT (fail) | MARTIAN (0) | |