Latest in Oscar Contenders

Deadline's ninth annual The Contenders Los Angeles kicked off at the Director’s Guild of America on Saturday by hosting panel guests including Jordan Peele of Us, Margot Robbie of Bombshell and Mark Ruffalo of Dark Waters among many others. Click on the photo above to launch the gallery. Stay tuned for more galleries…

Now with nominations finally announced for the 88th Annual Academy Awards, Gold Derby’s Tom O’Neil and I are ready to engage in our first Oscar Prediction Smackdown as we take a stab at where the race is landing just as the all-important second phase begins. Can The Revenant prevail with the most nominations  and a…

Best Picture Bridge Of Spies Deadline spoke to both Marc Platt and Kristie Macosko Krieger, two of the producers on Best Picture nominee Bridge Of Spies and both first-time nominees. “I got woken up by my phone buzzing this morning, but, to be fair, I left it on my bed on purpose, next to my pillow,” said Platt said…

Welcome to the tightest Oscar race in years. That fact was made clear this morning when four films put themselves in a position to actually take it all, an unusually high number of movies with a real chance to win Best Picture: The Revenant, The Big Short, Spotlight and yes, wait for it, Mad Max: Fury Road. These are…

Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs was diplomatic but clearly disappointed when I spoke to her at this morning’s Oscar nominations about the omission of African American-driven films like Straight Outta Compton, Concussion and Beasts Of No Nation. “Of course I am disappointed, but this is not to take away the…

UPDATE with studio rankings: 20th Century Fox’s The Revenant led all films with 12 nominations today as the 88th Oscar nominations were announced. It marked a strong showing by Fox, which also landed seven noms for Ridley Scott’s The Martian, three for specialty label Fox Searchlight’s Brooklyn, one for Joy’s Jennifer…

No Best Director nomination for Ridley Scott for The Martian and no Best Adapted Screenplay for Aaron Sorkin for Steve Jobs this morning? Shockers all round as these guys were seen as sure things for this year's Oscars. Add to that snubs for Steven Spielberg, Jane Fonda, Straight Outta Compton, Quentin Tarantino and…

Fox’s Leonardo DiCaprio frontier thriller The Revenant and Warner Bros/Village Roadshow’s wild ride Mad Max: Fury Road led nominations this morning for the 88th Oscars. The list revealed at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had a healthy mix of the expected and surprises as the awards season has…

The 88th Oscar nominations are being announced this morning at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. At 5:30 AM PT Guillermo del Toro and Ang Lee are set to reveal the crafts categories, with John Krasinski and Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs unveiling the…

Oscar season is in full swing, but what about offering awards to the unbelievable decades of persistence, ingenuity and overall struggle that went into many of these year-end films? We've come up with our own superlatives to recognize some of our favorite genesis stories. Just don't dress for an actual event. Some of…

Many have said 2012 has been the most remarkable year for movies in the Oscar race in a very long time. The dense list of quality contenders makes for quite a race, and it's somewhat reminiscent of another legendary year for cinema a half-century ago. The year 1962 was an embarrassment of riches, and in many ways…

Get those ballots in, stragglers. Forget that many professional pundits and even casual observers of this year's Oscar race have already called it. (…The King's Speech wins Best Picture… Best Actor for Colin Firth… Natalie Portman gets Best Actress… The Fighter‘s Christian Bale and Melissa Leo win supporting… The Socia…