A Cheat Sheet for the 88th Academy Awards

A Cheat Sheet for the 88th Academy Awards

The Oscar buzz is at an all-time high! Only a few hours remain until the 88th Academy Awards air live from the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. You can watch the ceremony from home by tuning in to ABC at 8:30 tonight—or, of course, you can always record it on their DVR since the complete ceremony is three hours long.

Comedian and actor Chris Rock will be hosting the ceremony, and a slew of other celebrities (from Morgan Freeman to Reese Witherspoon) will also make appearances to present each award. This year, eight films have been nominated for the biggest prize of the night—Best Picture. They are as follows:

The Big Short
• Bridge of Spies
• Brooklyn
• Mad Max: Fury Road
• The Martian
• The Revenant
• Room
• Spotlight

The Revenant and Mad Max: Fury Road have a big night ahead of them. The Revenant managed to nab 12 nominations—just two nominations short of the record 14. Mad Max: Fury Road received 10 nominations, followed by The Martian with seven nominations and Bridge of Spies, Carol, and Spotlight with six nominations. You can expect these films to be tonight’s big winners.

As usual, five films have been nominated for Best Animated Picture:

Anomalisa
• Boy & the World

Inside Out (See our review of it here!)
Shaun the Sheep Movie
• When Marnie Was There

Two actors and two actresses will also be awarded for their outstanding performances in this year’s films. The competition is as follows.

Best Actor:

• Bryan Cranston (Dalton Trumbo in Trumbo)
• Matt Damon (Mark Watney in The Martian)
• Leonardo DiCaprio (Hugh Glass in The Revenant)
• Michael Fassbender (Steve Jobs in Steve Jobs)
• Eddie Redmayne (Lili Elbe in The Danish Girl)

Best Actress:

• Cate Blanchett (Carol Aird in Carol)
• Brie Larson (Joy “Ma” Newsome in Room)
• Jennifer Lawrence (Joy Mangano in Joy)
• Charlotte Rampling (Kate Mercer in 45 Years)
• Saoirse Ronan (Eilis Lacey in Brooklyn)

Best Supporting Actress:

• Jennifer Jason Leigh (Daisy Domergue in The Hateful Eight)
• Rooney Mara (Therese Belivet in Carol)
• Rachel McAdams (Sacha Pfeiffer in Spotlight)
• Alicia Vikander (Gerda Wegener in The Danish Girl)
• Kate Winslet (Joanna Hoffman in Steve Jobs)

Best Supporting Actor:

• Christian Bale (Michael Burry in The Big Short)
• Tom Hardy (John Fitzgerald in The Revenant)
• Mark Ruffalo (Michael Rezendes in Spotlight)
• Mark Rylance (Rudolf Abel in Bridge of Spies)
• Sylvester Stallone (Rocky Balboa in Creed)

As always, musical performances will be woven throughout the ceremony to highlight the nominees for Best Original Song. Tonight’s performers include Lady Gaga (“Til It Happens to You” from The Hunting Ground), Sam Smith (“Writing’s on the Wall” from Spectre), and The Weeknd (“Earned It” from Fifty Shades of Grey).

The full list of nominations can be found on the official Academy Award website (click here). The Red Carpet, for those who are interested, starts at 7:00 PM. Who knows—watching the 88th Academy Awards might be the perfect way to wrap up your unexpected five-day weekend.