As noted by me before, The Revenant is going to sweep the major Oscar Awards this year: Best Picture, Best Director, Alejandro G. Inarritu, and Best Actor, Leonardo DiCaprio, as well as some technical kudos.
Best Picture:
It’s important to remember that the film that gets the largest number of nominations usually wins the Best Picture. The Revenant is nominated in 12 categories.
The Revenant is going to break a major record: No previous Best Picture has won without being nominated for writing (original or adapted screenplay).
Exception to the rule: In 2001, Ron Howard’s A Beautiful Mind won the Best Picture, even though The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring was the most nominated film.
Best Director:
In the 88 year history of the Academy, only two directors have won consecutive Oscars. John Ford and Joseph L. Mankiewicz.
Ford won the Best Director in 1940 for The Grapes of Wrath (which was nominated but did not win Best Picture), and in 1941 for How Green Was My Valley (which also won Best Picture).
Mankiewicz won his first directing Oscar in 1949 for A Letter to Three Wives (which did not win the top award), and in 1950 for All About Eve, which swept the most important awards (except for lead Bette Davis).
Mexican director Alejandro G. Inarritu had won the Best Director Oscar last year for Birdman, which was impressive but a tad too pretentious in its concerns. This year he is going to beat the (sort of) runner-up in this category, George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road), based on the fact that he had earlier won the Directors Guild of America (a very good predictor), the Golden Globe, and even BAFTA.
Best Actor
Leonardo DiCaprio will win–and should win–the Best Actor Oscar–based on his stellar performance: He practically carries the whole picture on his robust shoulders, albeit there is good assistance from Tom Hardy, who deservedly has garnered a Best Supporting Actor nod.
DiCaprio has earlier won the Golden Globe, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), and the BAFTA awards.
It’s important to remember that this is DiCaprio’s fifth acting nomination in 23 years!
There’s hardly any competition to Leo. The Best Actor category is rather weak this year. Bryan Cranston (Trumbo) and Eddie Redmayne (The Danish Girl) are good actors, but they do not deserve nomination for these performances (OK, shoot me for saying this).
If you want to know more about the Oscars, please read my book, All About Oscar: The History and Politics of the Academy Awards.
