Oscars coming up lets talk about it.. Lets start with Spike Lee's comments about boycotting due to perceived racism.

The comments really get on my nerves to be honest. I am sorry but there have been a number of "non-white" people who have been represented as the Oscars either as nominees or as winners. In fact I imagine in some cases being a white director or actor probably hinders your chances if your up against a good film or role that tackles black civil rights etc etc.

Whilst bearing in mind its only really relevant looking at recent history for obvious reasons I think 13% of Americas population are reasonably represented. I don't have time to research the percentage of black actors and directors in Hollywood or media in general but I imagine it is a lesser number even lower than 13%.. Should people boycott the Superbowl because there is an over-representation of African Americans? Get a grip - the best actors and best directors and best films get nominated on merit - sure there are always some bad snubs and the Oscars certainly has a certain appetite but its got nothing to do with race.

Isn't it time to get over it? I am not trying to say that racism doesn't exist in America but I really don't think it exists in such a ultra-liberal organisation who has a black president. Doesn't constantly banging on about it only perpetuate this supposed rift?!

What black actors were snubbed exactly? Straight Outta Compton? Does anyone seriously believe this deserved best picture or that any of its actors were deserving of an Oscar? Concussion? I haven't seen it tbh but the reviews on RT and Metacritic are hardly astounding. I rate Will Smith as an actor and think he could get an Oscar one day if the right role in the right films comes along. Of course some black actors and directors did get snubbed - the biggest probably being Idris Elba for supporting - but so did an even greater number of non-black actors and directors.

I think its more likely that Jews (who happen to be white) are over represented in Hollywood. Where does Spike draw the line? He's careful not to make it a black/white issue but it obviously is! This could be the third consecutive year for a Mexican to take best director! Stop being a baby Spike - the Oscars don't need to keep giving hack job awards to the likes of Jamie Foxx over far better actors to keep the peace.

Rant over. Here is a list of the nominees;

Best Picture
The Big Short – Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, and Jeremy Kleiner
Bridge of Spies – Steven Spielberg, Marc Platt, and Kristie Macosko Krieger
Brooklyn – Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey
Mad Max: Fury Road – Doug Mitchell and George Miller
The Martian – Simon Kinberg, Ridley Scott, Michael Schaefer and Mark Huffam
The Revenant – Arnon Milchan, Steve Golin, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Mary Parent and Keith Redmon
Room – Ed Guiney
Spotlight – Michael Sugar, Steve Golin, Nicole Rocklin and Blye Pagon Faust

Best Director
Lenny Abrahamson – Room
Alejandro G. Iñárritu – The Revenant
Tom McCarthy – Spotlight
Adam McKay – The Big Short
George Miller – Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Actor
Bryan Cranston – Trumbo as Dalton Trumbo
Matt Damon – The Martian as Mark Watney
Leonardo DiCaprio – The Revenant as Hugh Glass
Michael Fassbender – Steve Jobs as Steve Jobs
Eddie Redmayne – The Danish Girl as Lili Elbe / Einar Wegener

Best Actress
Cate Blanchett – Carol as Carol Aird
Brie Larson – Room as Joy "Ma" Newsome
Jennifer Lawrence – Joy as Joy Mangano
Charlotte Rampling – 45 Years as Kate Mercer
Saoirse Ronan – Brooklyn as Eilis Lacey

Best Supporting Actor
Christian Bale – The Big Short as Michael Burry
Tom Hardy – The Revenant as John Fitzgerald
Mark Ruffalo – Spotlight as Michael Rezendes
Mark Rylance – Bridge of Spies as Rudolf Abel
Sylvester Stallone – Creed as Rocky Balboa

Best Supporting Actress
Jennifer Jason Leigh – The Hateful Eight as Daisy Domergue
Rooney Mara – Carol as Therese Belivet
Rachel McAdams – Spotlight as Sacha Pfeiffer
Alicia Vikander – The Danish Girl as Gerda Wegener
Kate Winslet – Steve Jobs as Joanna Hoffman

Best Original Screenplay
Bridge of Spies – Matt Charman, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen
Ex Machina – Alex Garland
Inside Out – Josh Cooley, Ronnie del Carmen, Pete Docter and Meg LeFauve
Spotlight – Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer
Straight Outta Compton – Andrea Berloff, Jonathan Herman, S. Leigh Savidge and Alan Wenkus

Best Adapted Screenplay
The Big Short – Adam McKay and Charles Randolph from The Big Short by Michael Lewis
Brooklyn – Nick Hornby from Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín
Carol – Phyllis Nagy from The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith
The Martian – Drew Goddard from The Martian by Andy Weir
Room – Emma Donoghue from Room by Emma Donoghue

Best Animated Feature Film
Anomalisa – Charlie Kaufman, Duke Johnson and Rosa Tran
Boy & the World – Alê Abreu
Inside Out – Pete Docter and Jonas Rivera
Shaun the Sheep Movie – Mark Burton and Richard Starzak
When Marnie Was There – Hiromasa Yonebayashi and Yoshiaki Nishimura

Best Foreign Language Film
Embrace of the Serpent (Colombia) in Spanish – Ciro Guerra
Mustang (France) in Turkish – Deniz Gamze Ergüven
Son of Saul (Hungary) in Hungarian – László Nemes
Theeb (Jordan) in Arabic – Naji Abu Nowar
A War (Denmark) in Danish – Tobias Lindholm

Best Documentary – Feature
Amy – Asif Kapadia and James Gay-Rees
Cartel Land – Matthew Heineman and Tom Yellin
The Look of Silence – Joshua Oppenheimer and Signe Byrge Sørensen
What Happened, Miss Simone? – Liz Garbus, Amy Hobby and Justin Wilkes
Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom – Evgeny Afineevsky and Den Tolmor

Listening to Spike Lee will only make your life shorter. He's as racist as they come.

Best Picture
The Big Short – Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, and Jeremy Kleiner
Bridge of Spies – Steven Spielberg, Marc Platt, and Kristie Macosko Krieger
Brooklyn – Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey
Mad Max: Fury Road – Doug Mitchell and George Miller
The Martian – Simon Kinberg, Ridley Scott, Michael Schaefer and Mark Huffam
The Revenant – Arnon Milchan, Steve Golin, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Mary Parent and Keith Redmon
Room – Ed Guiney
Spotlight – Michael Sugar, Steve Golin, Nicole Rocklin and Blye Pagon Faust

Best Director
Lenny Abrahamson – Room
Alejandro G. Iñárritu – The Revenant
Tom McCarthy – Spotlight
Adam McKay – The Big Short
George Miller – Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Actor
Bryan Cranston – Trumbo as Dalton Trumbo
Matt Damon – The Martian as Mark Watney
Leonardo DiCaprio – The Revenant as Hugh Glass
Michael Fassbender – Steve Jobs as Steve Jobs
Eddie Redmayne – The Danish Girl as Lili Elbe / Einar Wegener

Best Actress
Cate Blanchett – Carol as Carol Aird
Brie Larson – Room as Joy "Ma" Newsome
Jennifer Lawrence – Joy as Joy Mangano
Charlotte Rampling – 45 Years as Kate Mercer
Saoirse Ronan – Brooklyn as Eilis Lacey

Best Supporting Actor
Christian Bale – The Big Short as Michael Burry
Tom Hardy – The Revenant as John Fitzgerald
Mark Ruffalo – Spotlight as Michael Rezendes
Mark Rylance – Bridge of Spies as Rudolf Abel
Sylvester Stallone – Creed as Rocky Balboa

Best Supporting Actress
Jennifer Jason Leigh – The Hateful Eight as Daisy Domergue
Rooney Mara – Carol as Therese Belivet
Rachel McAdams – Spotlight as Sacha Pfeiffer
Alicia Vikander – The Danish Girl as Gerda Wegener
Kate Winslet – Steve Jobs as Joanna Hoffman

Best Original Screenplay
Bridge of Spies – Matt Charman, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen
Ex Machina – Alex Garland
Inside Out – Josh Cooley, Ronnie del Carmen, Pete Docter and Meg LeFauve
Spotlight – Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer
Straight Outta Compton – Andrea Berloff, Jonathan Herman, S. Leigh Savidge and Alan Wenkus

Best Adapted Screenplay
The Big Short – Adam McKay and Charles Randolph from The Big Short by Michael Lewis
Brooklyn – Nick Hornby from Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín
Carol – Phyllis Nagy from The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith
The Martian – Drew Goddard from The Martian by Andy Weir
Room – Emma Donoghue from Room by Emma Donoghue

Best Animated Feature Film
Anomalisa – Charlie Kaufman, Duke Johnson and Rosa Tran
Boy & the World – Alê Abreu
Inside Out – Pete Docter and Jonas Rivera
Shaun the Sheep Movie – Mark Burton and Richard Starzak
When Marnie Was There – Hiromasa Yonebayashi and Yoshiaki Nishimura

Best Foreign Language Film
Embrace of the Serpent (Colombia) in Spanish – Ciro Guerra
Mustang (France) in Turkish – Deniz Gamze Ergüven
Son of Saul (Hungary) in Hungarian – László Nemes
Theeb (Jordan) in Arabic – Naji Abu Nowar
A War (Denmark) in Danish – Tobias Lindholm

Best Documentary – Feature
Amy – Asif Kapadia and James Gay-Rees
Cartel Land – Matthew Heineman and Tom Yellin
The Look of Silence – Joshua Oppenheimer and Signe Byrge Sørensen
What Happened, Miss Simone? – Liz Garbus, Amy Hobby and Justin Wilkes
Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom – Evgeny Afineevsky and Den Tolmor

Haven't seen all of the movies up for best picture nor I have seen all of the actor/actress nominees so I'll withhold my judgement on those, but I will say this just as I said in the Movie thread.

The anger from the black community is misplaced here. If more parts are given to actors of color more often, they will be in better positions to get Oscar-winning roles. It's that simple. That decision lies with the studios, the producers, directors, casting companies etc. That means the blame lies with them. All the Academy can do is decide on the best based on who was nominated. They have no real power to change what's happening here.

Coogler not nominated smh.

Found Sly decent in Creed. Not Oscar award winning imo

McLewis wrote:Haven't seen all of the movies up for best picture nor I have seen all of the actor/actress nominees so I'll withhold my judgement on those, but I will say this just as I said in the Movie thread.

The anger from the black community is misplaced here. If more parts are given to actors of color more often, they will be in better positions to get Oscar-winning roles. It's that simple. That decision lies with the studios, the producers, directors, casting companies etc. That means the blame lies with them. All the Academy can do is decide on the best based on who was nominated. They have no real power to change what's happening here.

Well, it is taking a turn for the better next few years. The only color producers care about is green. Black people need to vote with their dollars. No one watched concussion at all. Only good black movie that was a success was straight out of Compton.

I still hope they audition and give roles to black actors in race neutral roles though. I for one loves the MBJ choice as Johnny Storm. Want more people to get the same chance. But we have to vote with our money to change it.

The kid from Dope and the kid from Me and Earl needs more of those roles. They were great.

Yeah Dope was sick. Will be interesting to see where this year takes Shameik Moore.

Absolutely agree with you Armadillo. We all know how crazily opinionated Spike Lee is. And that's nothing wrong in itself. It only becomes a bit foolish when most of his comments are irrelevant or not logical.

There are black actors who have made it to mainstream success over the years. Will SMith, Jamie Foxx, Sam Jackson. There are new ones which are making waves, getting roles and even praised and worshipped world wide like Idris, Michael B, David Oyelowo.

And then there is also this

Freeza wrote:I still hope they audition and give roles to black actors in race neutral roles though.

I agree with this. And not only that. How about stop making Tyler Perry esque all black movies. The casual Think Like a Man movie is okay every now and then. But MIX actors of colour with the white ones in actual movies with GOOD potential because that's when more people and movie goers will get behind their talent and pay to watch these actors and movies. And I'm not talking about 20-80 mixing, make it close to 50/50. Make it noticeable so that people can see and talk about how "this film used mixed race to a success." And start cutting down on racial stereotypes in mainstream Hollywood.

Also, black actors really haven't got it that hard. They're the most fairly represented minority. Hispanics and Asians on the other hand can't seem to get any big roles. The only big upcoming Hispanic star is Oscar Isaac, and I'd guess 90% of the average moviegoer thinks he's white, because he looks that way.

Can't name an asian movie star other than Jackie Chan, and even he's very stereotypical.

Overall the problem is still there. But I don't think there is a need to divide races. Instead the people in power should actually use their money to promote good movies that feature a representative view on society. They keep making these shit "black" movies with nothing but black people that are so shit it makes me cry

Peccadillo wrote:

Rant over. Here is a list of the nominees;

Best Picture
The Big Short – Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, and Jeremy Kleiner
Bridge of Spies – Steven Spielberg, Marc Platt, and Kristie Macosko Krieger
Brooklyn – Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey
Mad Max: Fury Road – Doug Mitchell and George Miller
The Martian – Simon Kinberg, Ridley Scott, Michael Schaefer and Mark Huffam
The Revenant – Arnon Milchan, Steve Golin, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Mary Parent and Keith Redmon
Room – Ed Guiney
Spotlight – Michael Sugar, Steve Golin, Nicole Rocklin and Blye Pagon Faust

Best Director
Lenny Abrahamson – Room
Alejandro G. Iñárritu – The Revenant
Tom McCarthy – Spotlight
Adam McKay – The Big Short
George Miller – Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Actor
Bryan Cranston – Trumbo as Dalton Trumbo
Matt Damon – The Martian as Mark Watney
Leonardo DiCaprio – The Revenant as Hugh Glass
Michael Fassbender – Steve Jobs as Steve Jobs
Eddie Redmayne – The Danish Girl as Lili Elbe / Einar Wegener

Best Actress
Cate Blanchett – Carol as Carol Aird
Brie Larson – Room as Joy "Ma" Newsome
Jennifer Lawrence – Joy as Joy Mangano
Charlotte Rampling – 45 Years as Kate Mercer
Saoirse Ronan – Brooklyn as Eilis Lacey

Best Supporting Actor
Christian Bale – The Big Short as Michael Burry
Tom Hardy – The Revenant as John Fitzgerald
Mark Ruffalo – Spotlight as Michael Rezendes
Mark Rylance – Bridge of Spies as Rudolf Abel
Sylvester Stallone – Creed as Rocky Balboa

Best Supporting Actress
Jennifer Jason Leigh – The Hateful Eight as Daisy Domergue
Rooney Mara – Carol as Therese Belivet
Rachel McAdams – Spotlight as Sacha Pfeiffer
Alicia Vikander – The Danish Girl as Gerda Wegener
Kate Winslet – Steve Jobs as Joanna Hoffman

Best Original Screenplay
Bridge of Spies – Matt Charman, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen
Ex Machina – Alex Garland
Inside Out – Josh Cooley, Ronnie del Carmen, Pete Docter and Meg LeFauve
Spotlight – Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer
Straight Outta Compton – Andrea Berloff, Jonathan Herman, S. Leigh Savidge and Alan Wenkus

Best Adapted Screenplay
The Big Short – Adam McKay and Charles Randolph from The Big Short by Michael Lewis
Brooklyn – Nick Hornby from Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín
Carol – Phyllis Nagy from The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith
The Martian – Drew Goddard from The Martian by Andy Weir
Room – Emma Donoghue from Room by Emma Donoghue

Best Animated Feature Film
Anomalisa – Charlie Kaufman, Duke Johnson and Rosa Tran
Boy & the World – Alê Abreu
Inside Out – Pete Docter and Jonas Rivera
Shaun the Sheep Movie – Mark Burton and Richard Starzak
When Marnie Was There – Hiromasa Yonebayashi and Yoshiaki Nishimura

Best Picture
The Big Short – Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, and Jeremy Kleiner
Bridge of Spies – Steven Spielberg, Marc Platt, and Kristie Macosko Krieger
Brooklyn – Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey
Mad Max: Fury Road – Doug Mitchell and George Miller
The Martian – Simon Kinberg, Ridley Scott, Michael Schaefer and Mark Huffam
The Revenant – Arnon Milchan, Steve Golin, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Mary Parent and Keith Redmon
Room – Ed Guiney
Spotlight – Michael Sugar, Steve Golin, Nicole Rocklin and Blye Pagon Faust

Best Director
Lenny Abrahamson – Room
Alejandro G. Iñárritu – The Revenant
Tom McCarthy – Spotlight
Adam McKay – The Big Short
George Miller – Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Actor
Bryan Cranston – Trumbo as Dalton Trumbo
Matt Damon – The Martian as Mark Watney
Leonardo DiCaprio – The Revenant as Hugh Glass
Michael Fassbender – Steve Jobs as Steve Jobs
Eddie Redmayne – The Danish Girl as Lili Elbe / Einar Wegener

Best Actress
Cate Blanchett – Carol as Carol Aird
Brie Larson – Room as Joy "Ma" Newsome
Jennifer Lawrence – Joy as Joy Mangano
Charlotte Rampling – 45 Years as Kate Mercer
Saoirse Ronan – Brooklyn as Eilis Lacey

Best Supporting Actor
Christian Bale – The Big Short as Michael Burry
Tom Hardy – The Revenant as John Fitzgerald
Mark Ruffalo – Spotlight as Michael Rezendes
Mark Rylance – Bridge of Spies as Rudolf Abel
Sylvester Stallone – Creed as Rocky Balboa

Best Supporting Actress
Jennifer Jason Leigh – The Hateful Eight as Daisy Domergue
Rooney Mara – Carol as Therese Belivet
Rachel McAdams – Spotlight as Sacha Pfeiffer
Alicia Vikander – The Danish Girl as Gerda Wegener
Kate Winslet – Steve Jobs as Joanna Hoffman

Best Original Screenplay
Bridge of Spies – Matt Charman, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen
Ex Machina – Alex Garland
Inside Out – Josh Cooley, Ronnie del Carmen, Pete Docter and Meg LeFauve
Spotlight – Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer
Straight Outta Compton – Andrea Berloff, Jonathan Herman, S. Leigh Savidge and Alan Wenkus

Best Adapted Screenplay
The Big Short – Adam McKay and Charles Randolph from The Big Short by Michael Lewis
Brooklyn – Nick Hornby from Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín
Carol – Phyllis Nagy from The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith
The Martian – Drew Goddard from The Martian by Andy Weir
Room – Emma Donoghue from Room by Emma Donoghue

Best Animated Feature Film
Anomalisa – Charlie Kaufman, Duke Johnson and Rosa Tran
Boy & the World – Alê Abreu
Inside Out – Pete Docter and Jonas Rivera
Shaun the Sheep Movie – Mark Burton and Richard Starzak
When Marnie Was There – Hiromasa Yonebayashi and Yoshiaki Nishimura

Best Foreign Language Film
Embrace of the Serpent (Colombia) in Spanish – Ciro Guerra
Mustang (France) in Turkish – Deniz Gamze Ergüven
Son of Saul (Hungary) in Hungarian – László Nemes
Theeb (Jordan) in Arabic – Naji Abu Nowar
A War (Denmark) in Danish – Tobias Lindholm

Best Documentary – Feature
Amy – Asif Kapadia and James Gay-Rees
Cartel Land – Matthew Heineman and Tom Yellin
The Look of Silence – Joshua Oppenheimer and Signe Byrge Sørensen
What Happened, Miss Simone? – Liz Garbus, Amy Hobby and Justin Wilkes
Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom – Evgeny Afineevsky and Den Tolmor



I'm pretty sure in most of these. Biggest question mark is best supporting actress. But I think Vikander is leading that race after winning the critic's choice

Yeah agree with all your predictions Freeze. Spotlight defo deserves that Best Screenplay over Ex Machina which someone above picked. However I think things will get interesting if George Miller picks up Best Director at the SAGs after winning it at the Critics Choice.

Or rather the Directors Guild Awards

Some of the movies on there, the Martian? you've got to be *bleep* kidding me and Damon for best actor? GTFOH FFS.

Rooting for Sly and Leo. Leo has no competition this year tbh. Damon

These awards

Damon and The Martian was good

I would put Damon third behind DiCaprio and Fassbander.

El Gunner wrote:Damon and The Martian was good

I would put Damon third behind DiCaprio and Fassbander.

I didn't think it was outstanding acting at all to be honest. As for Fassbender, the best film he was in last year was Macbeth, I'll leave it at that. Great movie. The Martian was decent, for example, I would put Creed in there over it, although I can see why Creed was omitted.

TBH I'm not even sure what the criteria is for any of these nominations with regards to performances. That's the problem with subjective awards I suppose.

All this outrage over Elba getting snubbed for Beasts Of No Nation. Idrisozet did not get snubbed because he is black, Beasts got snubbed overall because of anti Netflix politics. It is a top 5 movie of the year for sure.

M99 wrote:All this outrage over Elba getting snubbed for Beasts Of No Nation. Idrisozet did not get snubbed because he is black, Beasts got snubbed overall because of anti GL politics. It is a top 5 movie of the year for sure.

Meh I don't think Beasts was that good.

Haven't seen it yet. It sounded like a Blood Diamond spin off with the villain.

I felt it was a bit closer to Last King of Scotland myself.

Either way, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm not quite sure it was strong enough for a Best Picture nod, but Elba absolutely should've been nominated.

Exactly. It is shades of Blood Diamond and Last King of Scotland, thats why it felt rather same old, same old to me. It's good but personally it didn't impress me. Elba was okay.

I can confirm Tom Hooper doesn't have a clue about the basic form of human emotion that is in every single person on Earth regardless of any classification, included, as it is in this case, sexuality.

He cares more about the taste of an Oscar it seems. But it looks like more than enough critics found him out fortunately.

Oh and Kate Winslet deserves that Best Supporting Actress more than Vikander.

The Revenant was trash.. Great visuals and camerawork but that doesn't make a good movie

LeSwagg James wrote:The Revenant was trash.. Great visuals and camerawork but that doesn't make a good movie

That really depends on what you're looking for in a movie though.