In the days leading up to the 88th Academy Awards, FilmBuffOnline will be offering profiles on all the nominees in the major categories. Some may be well know, others might be new to you, but if you need a refresher on these Best Picture nominees, here it is.
The Big Short
Producers: Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner
Release date: December 23, 2015
Box office gross as of February 24, 2016: $121,632,622 (Domestic: $67,308,897, Foreign: $54,326,725)
IMDB Synopsis: Four denizens in the world of high-finance predict the credit and housing bubble collapse of the mid-2000s, and decide to take on the big banks for their greed and lack of foresight.
Number of Oscar Nominations: 5 (Best Motion Picture of the Year; Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role; Best Achievement in Directing; Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay; Best Achievement in Film Editing)
Other awards for this film: Received 17 other Best Film/Picture nominations, with one award.
Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer: 88% (220 Positive Reviews, 29 Negative)
Rotten Tomatoes Critical Consensus: The Big Short approaches a serious, complicated subject with an impressive attention to detail — and manages to deliver a well-acted, scathingly funny indictment of its real-life villains in the bargain.
Dissenting Opinion: “It’s hard to like so much about a film… & yet to feel ultimately a little underwhelmed by it all… I look at all of these individual parts that I liked, & they don’t come together to create a finely tuned whole that is greater than the sum.”–Mark Hughes, Forbes
Official Site: http://www.thebigshortmovie.com/
Brooklyn
Producers: Finola Dwyer, Amanda Posey.
Release date: November 25, 2015
Box office gross as of February 24, 2016: $35,570,794 (Domestic: $35,570,794, Foreign: $0)
IMDB Synopsis: An Irish immigrant lands in 1950s Brooklyn, where she quickly falls into a romance with a local. When her past catches up with her, however, she must choose between two countries and the lives that exist within.
Number of Oscar Nominations: 3 (Best Motion Picture of the Year; Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role; Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay)
Other awards for this film: Received 19 other Best Film/Picture nominations, with two awards.
Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer: 98% (208 Positive Reviews, 5 Negative)
Rotten Tomatoes Critical Consensus: Brooklyn buttresses outstanding performances from Saoirse Ronan and Emory Cohen with a rich period drama that tugs at the heartstrings as deftly as it satisfies the mind.
Dissenting Opinion: “Zzzzzzz. Wonderful performances but do we really care about a teenager from Ireland trying to decide between guys, one on one continent, the other on another? ”–Gary Wolcott, Tri-City Herald.
Official Site: http://www.foxsearchlight.com/brooklyn/
Bridge of Spies
Producer: Steven Spielberg, Marc Platt, Kristie Macosko Krieger
Release date: October 16, 2015.
Box office gross as of February 24, 2016: $164,320,177 (Domestic: $72,216,420, Foreign: $92,103,757)
IMDB Synopsis: During the Cold War, an American lawyer is recruited to defend an arrested Soviet spy in court, and then help the CIA facilitate an exchange of the spy for the Soviet captured American U2 spy plane pilot, Francis Gary Powers.
Number of Oscar Nominations: 6 (Best Motion Picture of the Year; Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role; Best Writing, Original Screenplay; Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score; Best Achievement in Sound Mixing; Best Achievement in Production Design)
Other awards for this film:Received 7 other Best Film/Picture nominations, with one award.
Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer: 91% (226 Positive Reviews, 21 Negative)
Rotten Tomatoes Critical Consensus: Bridge of Spies finds new life in Hollywood’s classic Cold War espionage thriller formula, thanks to reliably outstanding work from Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks.
Dissenting Opinion: “Somehow Steven Spielberg – once the most enthralling, populist and cinematic of all mainstream directors – has turned an exciting page in Cold War intrigue into a dry, turgid history lesson…largely boring.”–Jim Schembri, 3AW.
Official Site: http://bridgeofspies.com/#
Mad Max: Fury Road
Producers: Doug Mitchell, George Miller.
Release date: May 15, 2015.
Box office gross as of February 24, 2016: $377,636,354 (Domestic: $153,636,354, Foreign: $224,000,000)
IMDB Synopsis: A woman rebels against a tyrannical ruler in postapocalyptic Australia in search for her home-land with the help of a group of female prisoners, a psychotic worshipper, and a drifter named Max.
Number of Oscar Nominations: 10 (Best Motion Picture of the Year; Best Achievement in Directing; Best Achievement in Cinematography; Best Achievement in Film Editing; Best Achievement in Costume Design; Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling; Best Achievement in Sound Mixing; Best Achievement in Sound Editing; Best Achievement in Visual Effects; Best Achievement in Production Design)
Other awards for this film:Received 45 other Best Film/Picture nominations, with 14 awards.
Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer: 97% (328 Positive Reviews, 10 Negative)
Rotten Tomatoes Critical Consensus: With exhilarating action and a surprising amount of narrative heft, Mad Max: Fury Road brings George Miller’s post-apocalyptic franchise roaring vigorously back to life.
Dissenting Opinion: “If you’re a hardcore computer gamer inured to marathon sessions of annihilation while being pulverised by Death Metal from wall-to-wall speaker stacks, this may be the movie for you. For myself, not so much.”–Adam Sweeting, The Art Desk.
Official Site: http://www.madmaxmovie.com/
The Martian
Producers: Simon Kinberg, Ridley Scott, Michael Schaefer, Mark Huffam
Release date: October 2, 2015
Box office gross as of February 24, 2016: $619,742,580 (Domestic: $228,342,485, Foreign: $391,400,095)
IMDB Synopsis: During a manned mission to Mars, Astronaut Mark Watney is presumed dead after a fierce storm and left behind by his crew. But Watney has survived and finds himself stranded and alone on the hostile planet. With only meager supplies, he must draw upon his ingenuity, wit and spirit to subsist and find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive.
Number of Oscar Nominations: 7 (Best Motion Picture of the Year; Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role; Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay; Best Achievement in Sound Mixing; Best Achievement in Sound Editing; Best Achievement in Visual Effects; Best Achievement in Production Design)
Other awards for this film: Received 25 other Best Film/Picture nominations, with three awards.
Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer: 92% (268 Positive Reviews, 22 Negative)
Rotten Tomatoes Critical Consensus: Smart, thrilling, and surprisingly funny, The Martian offers a faithful adaptation of the bestselling book that brings out the best in leading man Matt Damon and director Ridley Scott.
Dissenting Opinion: “By the finish, the science discussions have become impenetrable, the musical sequences are coming fast and furious, and every bit of action that should take five minutes takes 15.”–Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle.
Official Site: http://www.foxmovies.com/movies/the-martian
The Revenant
Producers: Arnon Milchan, Steve Golin, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Mary Parent, Keith Redmon.
Release date: December 25, 2015.
Box office gross as of February 24, 2016: $383,250,911 (Domestic: $165,952,514, Foreign: 217,298,397)
IMDB Synopsis: A frontiersman on a fur trading expedition in the 1820s fights for survival after being mauled by a bear and left for dead by members of his own hunting team.
Number of Oscar Nominations: 12 (Best Motion Picture of the Year; Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role; Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role; Best Achievement in Directing; Best Achievement in Cinematography; Best Achievement in Film Editing; Best Achievement in Costume Design; Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling; Best Achievement in Sound Mixing; Best Achievement in Sound Editing; Best Achievement in Visual Effects; Best Achievement in Production Design)
Other awards for this film: Received 20 other Best Film/Picture nominations, with three awards.
Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer: 82% (240 Positive Reviews, 51 Negative)
Rotten Tomatoes Critical Consensus: As starkly beautiful as it is harshly uncompromising, The Revenant uses Leonardo DiCaprio’s committed performance as fuel for an absorbing drama that offers punishing challenges — and rich rewards.
Dissenting Opinion: “A 156-minute western with 30 minutes of plot, a gorgeous and well-acted series of grueling battles between man and man or man and nature that amount emotionally to nothing at all.”–Lawrence Toppman, The Charlotte Observer
Official Site: http://www.foxmovies.com/movies/the-revenant
Room
Producers: .
Release date: September 4, 2015
Box office gross as of February 24, 2016: $21,109,003 (Domestic: $12,657,987, Foreign: $8,451,016)
IMDB Synopsis: After five-year-old Jack and his mother escape from the enclosed surroundings that Jack has known his entire life, the boy makes a thrilling discovery.
Number of Oscar Nominations: 4 (Best Motion Picture of the Year; Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role; Best Achievement in Directing; Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay)
Other awards for this film: Received 28 other Best Film/Picture nominations, with five awards..
Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer: 95% (214 Positive Reviews, 12 Negative)
Rotten Tomatoes Critical Consensus: Led by incredible work from Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay, Room makes for an unforgettably harrowing — and undeniably rewarding — experience.
Dissenting Opinion: “While it flickers with grace and imagination during its initial half, largely because of Jack, it devolves into a dreary, platitudinous therapy movie in its second …”– .
Official Site: http://roomthemovie.com/#/
Spotlight
Producers: Michael Sugar, Steve Golin, Nicole Rocklin, Blye Pagon Faust.
Release date: November 25, 2015.
Box office gross as of February 24, 2016: $58,042,260 (Domestic: $38,236,530, Foreign: $19,805,730)
IMDB Synopsis: The true story of how the Boston Globe uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation and cover-up within the local Catholic Archdiocese, shaking the entire Catholic Church to its core.
Number of Oscar Nominations: 6 (Best Motion Picture of the Year; Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role; Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role; Best Achievement in Directing; Best Writing, Original Screenplay; Best Achievement in Film Editing)
Other awards for this film: Received 46 other Best Film/Picture nominations, with 29 awards.
Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer: 96% (248 Positive Reviews, 101 Negative)
Rotten Tomatoes Critical Consensus: Spotlight gracefully handles the lurid details of its fact-based story while resisting the temptation to lionize its heroes, resulting in a drama that honors the audience as well as its real-life subjects.
Dissenting Opinion: “A tedious bore. The cast chews up the scenery with twitchy acting trying to put energy into the plodding script. ”–Victoria Alexander, The Las Vegas Informer.
Official Site: http://spotlightthefilm.com/
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