Oscar Nominees: Best Actor in a Leading Role

My predictions: 5/5
My ballot: Come back in February!
The nominees: Bryan Cranston (Trumbo), Matt Damon (The Martian), Leonardo DiCaprio (The Revenant), Michael Fassbender (Steve Jobs), Eddie Redmayne (The Danish Girl)

This list looks completely as expected. There wasn’t enough traction for Johnny Depp or Will Smith to join the race, and all five of these men ended up doing very well. The interesting note is that, while “The Revenant” did extraordinarily well, the other films here did not. “The Martian” picked up a bunch of notable nominations but missed out on Best Director. The most shocking snub I didn’t even notice was “Steve Jobs” for Best Adapted Screenplay, which is unforgivable. Redmayne’s film didn’t crack the top categories but had a healthy technical showing, and Cranston is the lone representative of his film. Aside from Depp, there’s no legitimate Oscar contender who I think should have been here, so I’m pretty happy with this list.

My current bet to win: Give it to DiCaprio - nothing is stopping him.