SURPRISES ABOUND IN WASHINGTON D.C. AREA FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION NOMINATIONS

In what's shaping up to a be a particularly unpredictable awards season, the Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association has announced its nominees for the 2015 frame, and they're chock full of shockers. Frontrunners Carol and Spotlight miss out on Best Picture and Best Director nods respectively, while nominations for Alex Garland in Director (for Ex Machina) and Sarah Silverman in Actress (for I Smile Back) take the places of other, more hotly-tipped contenders. Only Mad Max: Fury Road and The Revenant pull off mentions in both of the top categories. Winners are due to be announced tomorrow, the 7th of December. Check out all the nominations below:

Best Film
Brooklyn
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Revenant
Sicario
Spotlight

Best Director
Alex Garland (Ex Machina)
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (The Revenant)
Todd Haynes (Carol)
George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road)
Ridley Scott (The Martian)

Best Actor
Matt Damon (The Martian)
Johnny Depp (Black Mass)
Leonardo DiCaprio (The Revenant)
Michael Fassbender (Steve Jobs)
Eddie Redmayne (The Danish Girl)

Best Actress
Cate Blanchett (Carol)
Brie Larson (Room)
Saoirse Ronan (Brooklyn)
Sarah Silverman (I Smile Back)
Charlize Theron (Mad Max: Fury Road)

Best Supporting Actor
Paul Dano (Love & Mercy)
Idris Elba (Beasts of No Nation)
Tom Hardy (The Revenant)
Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies)
Sylvester Stallone (Creed)

Best Supporting Actress
Jennifer Jason Leigh (The Hateful Eight)
Rooney Mara (Carol)
Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl)
Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina)
Kate Winslet (Steve Jobs)

Best Original Screenplay
Matt Charman, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen (Bridge of Spies)
Josh Cooley, Ronnie del Carmen, Pete Docter and Meg LeFauve (Inside Out)
Alex Garland (Ex Machina)
Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer (Spotlight)
Amy Schumer (Trainwreck)

Best Adapted Screenplay
Emma Donoghue (Room)
Drew Goddard (The Martian)
Nick Hornby (Brooklyn)
Phyllis Nagy (Carol)
Aaron Sorkin (Steve Jobs)

Best Cinematography
Yves Belanger (Brooklyn)
Roger Deakins (Sicario)
Edward Lachman (Carol)
Emmanuel Lubezki (The Revenant)
John Seale (Mad Max: Fury Road)

Best Editing
Elliot Graham (Steve Jobs)
Stephen Mirrione (The Revenant)
Pietro Scalia (The Martian)
Margaret Sixel (Mad Max: Fury Road)
Joe Walker (Sicario)

Best Production Design
Judy Becker and Heather Loeffler (Carol)
Dante Ferretti and Francesca Lo Schiavo (Cinderella)
Colin Gibson and Lisa Thompson (Mad Max: Fury Road)
Jeffrey Melvin, Thomas E. Sanders and Shane Vieau (Crimson Peak)
Jennifer Oman, Francois Seguin and Louise Tremblay (Brooklyn)

Best Original Score
Michael Brook (Brooklyn)
Carter Burwell (Carol)
Tom Holkenborg (Mad Max: Fury Road)
Johann Johannsson (Sicario)
Ennio Morricone (The Hateful Eight)

Best Acting Ensemble
The Big Short
The Hateful Eight
Spotlight
Steve Jobs
Straight Outta Compton

Best Animated Feature
Anomalisa
The Good Dinosaur
Inside Out
The Peanuts Movie
Shaun the Sheep Movie

Best Documentary
Amy
Best of Enemies
Cartel Land
Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief
The Look of Silence

Best Foreign Language Film
The Assassin
Goodnight Mommy
Mustang
The Second Mother
Son of Saul

Best Youth Performance
Abraham Attah (Beasts of No Nation)
Raffey Cassidy (Tomorrowland)
Oona Laurence (Southpaw)
Gunes Sensoy (Mustang)
Jacob Tremblay (Room)