'Revenant' leads Oscar nods with 12 amid debate on race

'The Revenant' leads 2016's Oscar nominations with 12 nods, including best picture, while gritty action movie 'Mad Max: Fury Road' lands 10Brutal frontier saga "The Revenant" leads the 88th annual Academy Awards with 12 nominations, announced on Jan. 14, while the acting categories were again filled entirely by white performers, following a backlash at last year's nominees.

The strong showing for "The Revenant," including a best actor nod for Leonardo DiCaprio, follows its win at the Golden Globes. It sets director Alejandro Inarritu for a possible back-to-back win following his best-picture winning "Birdman" last year.

George Miller's "Mad Max: Fury Road" followed with 10 nominations, including best picture. Ridley Scott's sci-fi epic "The Martian" landed 7 nominations, including best picture, but no best director nod for Scott.

Eight films were nominated for best picture. The other five were: Tom McCarthy's investigative journalistic procedural "Spotlight," Steven Spielberg's Cold War thriller "Bridge of Spies," Adam McKay's Michael Lewis adaptation "The Big Short," the mother-son captive drama "Room" and the 1950s Irish immigrant tale "Brooklyn."

Left on the outside were Todd Haynes' acclaimed lesbian romance "Carol" and the N.W.A biopic "Straight Outta Compton."

The acting nominees, which notably omitted Idris Elba for "Beasts of No Nation" and Benicio Del Toro for "Sicario," gave the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences an awkward repeat of the "OscarsSoWhite" backlash that followed last year's acting nominees.

Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs has since redoubled efforts to diversify the academy's membership and slated Chris Rock to host this year's Feb. 28 ceremony.