While Mad Max: Fury Road had a great day, the big stories were the strong performances of Ex Machina, Brooklyn, The Martian and Room, which haven’t been performing nearly as well as this all season. Room has bee doing well, just not this well. Spotlight continues to pick up a handful of mentions, but not nearly as many as one would expect from an Oscar frontrunner.

Anyway, looking over these nominations, I’m struck by one thing: how unrepresentative they may be of Academy tastes and how idiosyncrasies will likely render these selections immaterial. At least from the look of the current lay of the land.

Award Tallies

(9) Mad Max: Fury Road
(8) Ex Machina
(7) Brooklyn, The Martian, Room
(4) The Hateful Eight, The Revenant, Sicario, Spotlight
(3) Anomalisa, Bridge of Spies, Love & Mercy

The Awards

Best Picture

Brooklyn
Ex Machina
Mad Max: Fury Road
Room
Spotlight

Best Animated Film

Anomalisa
The Good Dinosaur
Inside Out
The Peanuts Movie
Shaun the Sheep Movie

Best Director

Lenny Abrahamson – Room
John Crowley – Brooklyn
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu – The Revenant
Tom McCarthy – Spotlight
George Miller – Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Actor

Bryan Cranston – Trumbo
Matt Damon – The Martian
Leonardo DiCaprio – The Revenant
Jason Segel – The End of the Tour
Jacob Tremblay – Room

Best Actress

Brie Larson – Room
Charlotte Rmapling – 45 Years
Saoirse Ronan – Brooklyn
Charlize Theron – Mad Max: Fury Road
Alicia Vikander – Ex Machina

Best Supporting Actor

R.J. Cyler – Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
Paul Dano – Love & Mercy
Oscar Isaac – Ex Machina
Tom Noonan – Anomalisa
Mark Rylance – Bridge of Spies

Best Supporting Actress

Olivia Cooke – Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
Jennifer Jason Leigh – The Hateful Eight
Helen Mirren – Trumbo
Kristen Stewart – Clouds of Sils Maria
Alicia Vikander – The Danish Girl

Best Original Screenplay

Ex Machina
The Hateful Eight
Mistress America
Spotlight
What We Do in the Shadows

Best Adapted Screenplay

Anomalisa
Brooklyn
The End of the Tour
The Martian
Room

Best Use of Music

The Hateful Eight
Love & Mercy
Mad Max: Fury Road
Sicario
Straight Outta Compton

Best Editing

Bridge of Spies
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant
Room
Sicario

Best Cinematography

Brooklyn
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant
Sicario

Best Production Design

Bridge of Spies
Brooklyn
Ex Machina
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian

Best Sound Design

Ex Machina
Love & Mercy
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
Sicario

Best Visual Effects

Ex Machina
Jurassic World
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Walk

Best Foreign Film

Goodnight Mommy
Phoenix
A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence
Taxi
White God

Best Documentary

Amy
Cartel Land
He Named Me Malala
Meru
The Wrecking Crew

Best Ensemble Performance

The Big Short
The Hateful Eight
Inside Out
Spotlight
Straight Outta Compton
What We Do in the Shadows

Breakthrough Artist

Abraham Attah – Beasts of No Nation
Sean S. Baker – Tangerine
Emory Cohen – Brooklyn
Jacob Tremblay – Room
Alicia Vikander – The Danish Girl, Ex Machina

San Diego Film Critics Society Data

First Awards: 1996 (20)