Precursor: 20th Satellite Awards Nominations (2015)

In spite of a website showing that their nominations announcement would be made tomorrow, they’ve announced early. As usual, the International Press Academy doesn’t know how to stick to their own rules. As to the nominations? Well, they are like Golden Globes nominations back before the Globes got serious about selecting the best films of the year. Many of these choices are populist at best and confusing at worst. How can Brooklyn be a Best Picture nominee and only have one other nomination for Best Actress? Where’s the screenplay? Or the costumes? Or the production design?

How can Spectre end up with 7 nominations, more than Bridge of Spies, Carol, The Revenant, Sicario and other Best Picture nominees and after receiving largely mediocre reviews? Steve Jobs got a screenwriting nomination and three other mentions, but not Best Picture whereas Carol and The Big Short are Best Picture nominees without a writing nominations. Getting an early screener can help (I’ll See You in My Dreams) and not getting one can hurt dramatically (Joy and The Hateful Eight). They still found room for The Revenant, which screened around the same time as Joy.

These nominations are largely baffling. Either the lack of consensus early on is influencing groups to make strange choices or the desire to cover as many bases as possible lead to all-over-the-place selections. In the end, we’ll need to see the actual Oscar nominees to know if these are at all prophetic, but with past experience, they aren’t.

Nominations Tallies

(9) The Martian
(7) The Danish Girl, Spectre, Spotlight
(5) Bridge of Spies, Carol, The Revenant, Sicario
(4) Inside Out, Love & Mercy, Mad Max: Fury Road, Room, Steve Jobs
(3) Black Mass

The Nominations

Best Picture

The Big Short
Black Mass
Bridge of Spies
Brooklyn
Carol
The Martian
The Revenant
Room
Sicario
Spotlight

Best Animated or Mixed Media

Anomalisa
The Good Dinosaur
Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet
Inside Out
The Peanuts Movie
Shaun The Sheep Movie

Best Director

Bridge of Spies – Steven Spielberg
The Danish Girl – Tom Hooper
The Martian – Ridley Scott
The Revenant – Alejandro González Iñárritu
Room – Lenny Abrahamson
Spotlight – Thomas McCarthy

Best Actor

Matt Damon – The Martian
Johnny Depp – Black Mass
Leonardo DiCaprio – The Revenant
Michael Fassbender – Steve Jobs
Tom Hardy – Legend
Eddie Redmayne – The Danish Girl
Will Smith – Concussion

Best Actress

Cate Blanchett – Carol
Blythe Danner – I’ll See You in My Dreams
Brie Larson – Room
Carey Mulligan – Suffragette
Charlotte Rampling – 45 Years
Saoirse Ronan – Brooklyn

Best Supporting Actor

Christian Bale – The Big Short
Paul Dano – Love & Mercy
Benicio Del Toro – Sicario
Michael Keaton – Spotlight
Mark Ruffalo – Spotlight
Sylvester Stallone – Creed

Best Supporting Actress

Elizabeth Banks – Love & Mercy
Jane Fonda – Youth
Rooney Mara – Carol
Rachel McAdams – Spotlight
Alicia Vikander – The Danish Girl
Kate Winslet – Steve Jobs

Best Original Screenplay

Bridge of Spies
Inside Out
Love & Mercy
Spotlight
Straight Outta Compton
Suffragette

Best Adapted Screenplay

Black Mass
The Danish Girl
The Martian
The Revenant
Room
Steve Jobs

Best Original Score

Carol
The Danish Girl
Inside Out
The Martian
Spectre
Spotlight

Best Original Song

“Cold One” – Ricki and the Flash
“Love Me Like You Do” – Fifty Shades of Grey
“One Kind Of Love” – Love & Mercy
“See You Again” – Furious 7
“Till It Happens To You” – The Hunting Ground
“Writing’s On The Wall” – Spectre

Best Film Editing

Bridge of Spies
Carol
The Martian
Sicario
Spectre
Steve Jobs

Best Cinematography

Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant
Sicario
Spectre

Best Art Direction & Production Design

Bridge of Spies
Cinderella
The Danish Girl
Macbeth
Mad Max: Fury Road
Spectre

Best Costume Design

The Assassin
Cinderella
The Danish Girl
Far From the Madding Crowd
Macbeth
The Throne

Best Sound Mixing & Editing

Inside Out
Jurassic World
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
Sicario
Spectre

Best Visual Effects

Everest
Jurassic World
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
Spectre
The Walk

Best International Film

The Assassin – Taiwan
The Brand New Testament – Belgium
Goodnight Mommy – Austria
The High Sun – Croatia
Labyrinth of Lies – Germany
Mustang – France
A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence – Sweden
The Second Mother – Brazil
Son of Saul – Hungary
The Throne – South Korea

Best Documentary

Amy
Becoming Bulletproof
Best of Enemies
Cartel Land
Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead:The Story of the National Lampoon
Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief
He Named Me Malala
The Hunting Ground
The Look of Silence
Where to Invade Next