The American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awards, or the Oscars, will be awarded Monday Feb 29 from noon, Australian Eastern Summer Time.

BEST ACTOR

BRYAN CRANSTON is nominated for playing the titular role of Trumbo in TRUMBO. In  the title role he breaks brilliant cadence clear, wit wielded like a weapon, a chain smoking social conscience stalwart.

This is the only category TRUMBO has been nominated for. Yet its production design and costume design are as good if not better than THE DANISH GIRL.

And what about the great score by Theodore Shapiro composer of such recent gems as Infinitely Polar Bear, starring Mark Ruffalo and Danny Collins starring Al Pacino, both films sadly side barred from the ceremony.

His score for TRUMBO is as good as the treading water efforts of veteran stalwarts John Williams for Star Wars and Ennio Morricone for The Hateful Eight.

MATT DAMON for his performance in The Martian, that garnered him a best actor, comedy, at the Golden Globes, because of the paucity of legitimate comedy performances. It is doubtful his performance will sway the Oscar mavens.

LEONARDO DICAPRIO for his grunting, gasping, spittle spitting resurrectionist revenger performance in The Revenant. It ticks the boxes of behind the eight ball characters the Academy tends to reward.

MICHAEL FASSBENDER personifies Steve Jobs in the film Steve Jobs.

Like Bryan Cranston, he is playing a real person, with a performance that is as charismatic as the person he portrays. It’ s a kudos well deserved.

EDDIE REDMAYNE for The Danish Girl.Winner of last year’s Oscar for Best Performance by An Actor in a Lead Role, Eddy Redmayne has been given a chance of second bite at the cherry, however, this time around, he’ll be pipped. All he seems to do in this picture is grin, giggle and cry. Which is not the theory of everything!

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

For best actor in a supporting role, CHRISTIAN BALE Bale has been nominated for his performance in The Big Short.

Mr. Bale has triumphed in this category before for his performance in The Fighter, and this performance shows his enormous range that runs between Batman and Bateman.

In contention is TOM HARDY for his performance as the scalped pelt hunter and focus of Leonard DiCaprio’s hatred in The Revenant. If there was a category for best mumbling performance, he’d be a shoo in.

Sturdy competition is provided by MARK RUFFALO’s beautifully rendered performance in Spotlight, playing a crusading journalist hell bent on bringing heavenly hypocrites to task.

Ruffalo has been nominated twice before and hopefully this will be a case of third time lucky. His body of work is remarkable in both mainstream and indie films and he would make a most worthy recipient.

Also hitting the mark is MARK RYLANCE in a quietly controlled characterisation of a Communist spy in Bridge Of Spies.

Sentimental nominee is SYLVESTER STALLONE for resurrecting his Rocky persona in Creed. Nostalgia packs quite a punch at Oscarville, so don’t be surprised if Sly flies.

BEST ACTRESS

Actresses singled out for leading role significance are CATE BLANCHETT for Carol, in which she plays the titular character, a well endowed lovelorn lipstick lesbian seduced by a shopgirl and threatened with a Kramer vs Kramer like custody battle.

Cate has been the recipient prior, as has JENNIFER LAWRENCE, nominated this year for her performance in Joy.

The exquisite SAOIRSE RONAN, nominated eight years ago for Supporting Actress, this year attains leading lady honour for her superbly nuanced role in Brooklyn.

First time nominee after a fifty year career, septuagenarian, CHARLOTTE RAMPLING cracks it for 45 Years, whilst first time nominee also, Brie Larson, deserves the recognition of her work in the grueling, Room.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Supporting dames include JENNIFER JASON LEIGH channeling Carrie and Regan in Tarantino’s schlockfest western, The Hateful Eight.  Arguably, the best thing about the film, I would have also nominated her for her exquisite work in Anomalisa.

RACHEL McADAMS makes an impact as the lone female reporter in Spotlight, whilst ALICIA VIKANDER was the one true honest thing in The Danish Girl.

ROONEY MARA is marvelous as the wide eyed seductress in Carol, and the incomparable KATE WINSLET has every right to score her second statuette for her powerful PA in Steve Jobs.

BEST MOVIE

So we know who the performers are, what about the pictures. Which is the eight deemed to be great?

The Christian Bale led ensemble piece about the Global Financial Crisis, THE BIG SHORT is one. It has  a total of five nominations including Directing – Adam McKay, Film Editing – Hank Corwin and Writing (Adapted Screenplay) – Screenplay by Charles Randolph and Adam McKay.

Steven Spielberg’s BRIDGE OF SPIES is nominated for six Oscars, including Best Film, the aforementioned supporting actor, Mark Rylance, as well as  .Sound Mixing – Andy Nelson, Gary Rydstrom and Drew Kunin, Production Design – Production Design: Adam Stockhausen; Set Decoration: Rena DeAngelo and Bernhard Henrich, Music (Original Score) – Thomas Newman and Writing (Original Screenplay) – Written by Matt Charman and Ethan Coen & Joel Coen. Great to see the Coen’s nominated again and for a Spielberg picture. Wouldn’t it great if they scripted the touted Indiana Jones film!

The gobsmackingly gorgeous and unabashedly old fashioned BROOKLYN is a well deserved best movie nominee, as is the two other nominations it has received, Actress in a Leading Role – Saoirse Ronan and Writing (Adapted Screenplay) – Screenplay by Nick Hornby. Hornby’s script is text book perfection on how to adapt a beautiful book into a beautiful screenplay. Why BROOKLYN did not get a nod for Costume Design, Production Design or direction is beyond belief.

Australia is well served by the inclusion of MAD MAX: FURY ROAD, with ten nominations, mostly in the technical areas: Visual Effects – Andrew Jackson, Tom Wood, Dan Oliver and Andy Williams, Sound Mixing – Chris Jenkins, Gregg Rudloff and Ben Osmo, Best Picture – Doug Mitchell and George Miller, Producers,Directing – George Miller,Costume Design – Jenny Beavan,Cinematography – John Seale, Makeup and Hairstyling – Lesley Vanderwalt, Elka Wardega and Damian Martin, Film Editing – Margaret Sixel,Sound Editing – Mark Mangini and David White and Production Design – Production Design: Colin Gibson; Set Decoration: Lisa Thompson.

THE MARTIAN, THE REVENANT,  ROOM and SPOTLIGHT also make the eight. SPOTLIGHT has a  very real and stinging resonance with Australian audiences at the moment in the face of the George Pell affair, as Long before 9/11, the Catholic Church was crashing into the twin towers of innocence and faith as their clerics were terrorising, interfering, and molesting the most vulnerable of their congregation. This press procedural is an important, dynamic, entertaining and chilling film of historical cases poisoning the well of the present.

But what about YOUTH and ANOMALISA? These two exceptional films deserve best film category. Yes, ANOMALISA has been nominated for best animated feature, and it should win. But YOUTH has only been nominated for best song, (which it should win), and nothing more.

As usual, the omissions are just as interesting and important as the admissions when it comes to the Academy.

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Will Cinematographer Roger Deakins break his hoodoo with his thirteenth nomination for SICARIO or will Emmanuel Lubezki pip him by winning three on the trot?

COSTUMES

Sandy Powell is nominated twice for her cozzies for CINDERELLA and CAROL or will it be third time lucky for THE REVENANT’S Jacqueline West?

We all hope for the best that Oscar has the balls to do the right thing. The Envelope please…….