7 Interesting Facts About This Year’s Oscar Nominees

A look inside the events leading up to the U.S. stock market crash of 2008, The Big Short follows a handful of investors that saw the warnings signs and decide to take on the big banks.
NOMINATED FOR: Best Picture, Directing, Actor in a Supporting Role (Christian Bale), Film Editing, Writing
INTERESTING FACT: The cast includes four Oscar winners - Christian Bale, Melissa Leo, Brad Pitt and Marisa Tomei, and two Oscar nominees, Steve Carell and Ryan Gosling.

Rey, a scavenger from the planet Jakku, finds a droid that knows the whereabouts of the long lost Luke Skywalker. Along with a rogue stormtrooper and two smugglers, Rey is thrown into the middle of a battle between the Resistance and the evil First Order.
NOMINATED FOR: Film Editing, Music, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Visual Effects
INTERESTING FACT: The production team used real locations and miniature models over green-screens and computer-generated imagery whenever possible, in order to make the film aesthetically similar to the original Star Wars trilogies.

Young Riley and her family move from the Midwest to San Francisco, leading to a whole range of emotions. These emotions - Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness - conflict on how best to navigate a new city, house, and school.
NOMINATED FOR: Animated Feature Film, Writing
INTERESTING FACT: The writers considered up to 27 different emotions, including Surprise, Pride, and Trust, but settled on five to make it less complicated.

An Irish immigrant called Eilis lands in Brooklyn in the 1950’s, where she meets a local, Tony. But when her past catches up with her and she has to return home to Ireland, Eilis forced to choose between two countries and the lives that exist within each.
NOMINATED FOR: Best Picture, Actress in Leading Role (Saoirse Ronan), Writing
INTERESTING FACT: The city of Brooklyn in the film was actually shot in Montreal because the production team was unable to turn 2015 Brooklyn back to 1950s Brooklyn for budgeting reasons. Only two days of production were actually spent in Brooklyn.

In a post-apocalyptic world, Furiosa, who is determined to go back to her childhood home, and Max, a drifter, rebel against a tyrannical ruler.
NOMINATED FOR: Best Picture, Cinematography, Costume Design, Directing, Film Editing, Makeup and Hairstyling, Production Design, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Visual Effects
INTERESTING FACT: While filming on location in Namibia, Dayna Porter, the stunt double for Charlize Theron, and Dane Grant, the rehearsal double for Tom Hardy, met, fell in love, and, in March 2013, got married.

During a mission to Mars, Astronaut Mark Watney is presumed dead after a fierce storm and left behind by his crew. But Watney survives and now has to use his sparse supplies and his ingenuity to stay alive and send a signal to Earth.
NOMINATED FOR: Best Picture, Actor in a Leading Role (Matt Damon), Production Design, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Visual Effects, Writing
INTERESTING FACT: On September 28, 2015 (four days before the film's scheduled US release), NASA announced that it had found evidence that briny water still flows on the surface of Mars.

A frontiersman on a fur trading expedition in the 1820’s fights for survival after being mauled by a bear and abandoned by members of his own hunting team.
NOMINATED FOR: Best Picture, Actor in a Leading Role (Leonardo DiCaprio), Actor in a Supporting Role (Tom Hardy), Cinematography, Costume Design, Directing, Film Editing, Makeup and Hairstyling, Production Design, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Visual Effects
INTERESTING FACT: For what he describes as the hardest performance of his career, Leonardo DiCaprio had to learn to shoot a musket, build a fire, speak two Native American languages, and study with a doctor who specializes in ancient healing techniques. 

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