‘The Revenant,’ ‘Mad Max’ Lead Oscars ’16 Nominations

“The Revenant”, the Leonardo DiCaprio-starrer brutal survival drama, is the front-runner at the 88th Oscars by bagging 12 nominations in major categories of best picture, best actor and director while action thriller “Mad Max: Fury Road” follows closely with 10 nods.

Both the films have been recognized in the best picture category besides cold war-set “Bridge of Spies”, period romance “Brooklyn”, action thriller “Mad Max: Fury Road”, space adventure “The Martian”, captivity drama “Room”, recession drama “Big Short” and news drama “Spotlight”.

“The Martian” has bagged seven nominations while “Carol” and “Spotlight” got six each. The nominations were announced Thursday.

Based on the true story of 19th century fur trapper Hugh Glass, “The Revenant” has brought DiCaprio close to the Oscars glory while director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu is back in the game after winning big last year for “The Birdman”.

Apart from the best picture, best actor for DiCaprio and best director for Inarritu, the movie has bagged nominations for best supporting actor (Tom Hardy), best cinematography, sound editing, costume design, sound mixing, film editing, production design, visual effects and make up and styling.

DiCaprio will fight it out with last year’s best actor winner Eddie Redmayne (The Danish Girl), Michael Fassbender for “Steve Jobs”, fellow Golden Globe winner Matt Damon “The Martian” and Bryan Cranston for “Trumbo”.

The best actress category is being led by double Oscar winner 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”. (PNA/PTI) JBP/RSM