Since the awards season kicked off last fall, the conventional wisdom has been that 2015 is a wide-open and confusing year. And that should make predicting Thursday’s Academy Awards nominations a fool’s errand, right? Maybe. But I have to try anyway.
The year saw critical favorites like “Spotlight,” which has been a default frontrunner for months, and “Carol,” which has picked up lots of critical love as well. Big mainstream movies have barged into the awards picture, with “The Martian” and “Mad Max: Fury Road” the main examples. “The Revenant,” “The Hateful Eight” and “Joy” were dropped on voters at the last minute, with the first speaking loudest.