UPDATE: The critics of the Critics Choice Awards have added Star Wars: The Force Awakens to their list of Best Picture nominees, doing so over a week after their original announcement – which occurred, of course, prior to the film being screened. The Force Awakens has not been added to any other categories. This is the 2nd time the group has added a movie retroactively. The first was in 2000 with Tom Hanks‘ Cast Away. 

The Oscar Race is becoming slightly more clear with the announcement of the nominees for The 21st Annual Critics’ Choice Awards. Mad Max: Fury Road boasts a hefty lead over the pack with 13 nominations. The next closest are Carol, The Revenant and The Martian with 9 a piece.

Ridley Scott‘s blockbuster gets the biggest Oscar boost, as the Matt Damon sci-fi crowd-pleaser has been largely absent from the awards discussion. With this critical imprimatur, Academy members are certain to give The Martian a fresh look in all categories.

Spotlight notched eight, The Big Short seven, and Quentin Tarnatino‘s The Hateful Eight six (although it was noticeably absent from the Best Picture and Director categories). Bridge of Spies, Brooklyn, Sicario, and The Danish Girl earned 5 a piece, and Room – the little indie that could – grabbed 4.

The Critics’ Choice has a wealth of categories, which include Best Comedy, Best Action Movie, and Best Sci-Fi/Horror, along with acting nominations for each of those subsets. As a result, viewers will get to see fan favorites like Jurassic World, Furious 7, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, and Trainwreck compete alongside more serious fare.

Back to Oscar race fallout, while Mark Ruffalo and Rachel McAdams received Supporting nods for their performances in Spotlight , Michael Keaton was overlooked again. Once seen as a sure thing for either an Actor or Supporting Actor nomination, Keaton is now a long shot (which is very unfortunate; this is some of his best, most understated work).

Steve Jobs‘ Oscar hopes are also looking far-fetched. Despite citations here for Actor (Michael Fassbender), Supporting Actress (Kate Winslet), and Adapted Screenplay (Aaron Sorkin), it was ignored in the Picture and Director races. Steve Jobs now appears unlikely to get any nominations from the Academy outside of those three (at best). It’s a big fall for a movie that, early on, many expected to be the presumptive favorite – especially when it opened to rave reviews – before tanking at the box office.

The Critics’ Choice Awards are a presentation of the Broadcast Film Critics Association, an organization that consists of nearly 300 reviewers from TV, radio and online. The ceremony will be held on Sunday Jan. 17 – a week after the Golden Globes are handed out – when it will air simultaneously on A&E, Lifetime, and Lifetime Movie Network (LMN).

21st CRITICS’ CHOICE AWARDS NOMINATIONS
2015 Films

Best Picture
– The Big Short
– Bridge of Spies
– Brooklyn
– Carol
– Mad Max: Fury Road
– The Martian
– The Revenant
– Room
– Sicario
– Spotlight
– Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Best Actor
– Bryan Cranston, Trumbo
– 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
– Jennifer Lawrence, Joy
– Charlotte Rampling, 45 Years
– Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn
– Charlize Theron,  Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Supporting Actor
– Paul Dano, Love & Mercy
– Tom Hardy, The Revenant
– Mark Ruffalo, Spotlight
– Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies
– Michael Shannon, 99 Homes
– Sylvester Stallone, Creed

Best Supporting Actress
– Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Hateful Eight
– Rooney Mara, Carol
– Rachel McAdams, Spotlight
– Helen Mirren, Trumbo
– Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl
– Kate Winselt, Steve Jobs

Best Young Actor/Actress
– Abraham Attah, Beasts Of No Nation
– RJ Cyler, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
– Shameik Moore, Dope
– Milo Parker, Mr. Holmes
– Jacob Tremblay, Room

Best Acting Ensemble
– The Big Short
– The Hateful Eight
– Spotlight
– Straight Outta Compton
– Trumbo

Best Director
– Todd Haynes, Carol
– Alejandro González Iñárritu, The Revenant
– Tom McCarthy, Spotlight
– George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road
– Ridley Scott, The Martian
– Steven Spielberg, Bridge of Spies

Best Original Screenplay
– Bridge of Spies (Matt Charman and Ethan Coen & Joel Coen)
– Ex Machina (Alex Garland)
– The Hateful Eight (Quentin Tarantino)
– Inside Out (Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve, Josh Cooley)
– Spotlight (Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy)

Best Adapted Screenplay
– The Big Short (Charles Randolph and Adam McKay)
– Brooklyn (Nick Hornby)
– The Martian (Drew Goddard)
– Room (Emma Donoghue)
– Steve Jobs (Aaron Sorkin)

Best Cinematography
– Carol (Ed Lachman)
– The Hateful Eight (Robert Richardson)
– Mad Max: Fury Road (John Seale)
– The Martian (Dariusz Wolski)
– The Revenant (Emmanuel Lubezki)
– Sicario (Roger Deakins)

Best Production Design
– Bridge of Spies (Adam Stockhausen; Rena DeAngelo)
– Brooklyn (François Séguin, Jennifer Oman and Louise Tremblay)
– Carol (Judy Becker, Heather Loeffler)
– The Danish Girl (Eve Stewart, Michael Standish)
– Mad Max: Fury Road (Colin Gibson)
– The Martian (Arthur Max, Celia Bobak)

Best Editing
– The Big Short (Hank Corwin)
– Mad Max: Fury Road (Margaret Sixel)
– The Martian (Pietro Scalia)
– The Revenant (Stephen Mirrione)
– Spotlight (Tom McArdle)

Best Costume Design
– Brooklyn (Odile Dicks-Mireaux)
– Carol (Sandy Powell)
– Cinderella (Sandy Powell)
– The Danish Girl (Paco Delgado)
– Mad Max: Fury Road (Jenny Beavan)

Best Hair & Makeup
– Black Mass
– Carol
– The Danish Girl
– The Hateful Eight
– Mad Max: Fury Road
– The Revenant

Best Visual Effects
– Ex Machina
– Jurassic World
– Mad Max: Fury Road
– The Martian
– The Revenant
– The Walk

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

Best Action Movie
– Furious 7
– Jurassic World
– Mad Max: Fury Road
– Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation
– Sicario

Best Actor in an Action Movie
– Daniel Craig, Spectre
– Tom Cruise, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation
– Tom Hardy, Mad Max: Fury Road
– Chris Pratt, Jurassic World
– Paul Rudd, Ant-Man

Best Actress in an Action Movie
– Emily Blunt, Sicario
– Rebecca Ferguson, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation
– Bryce Dallas Howard, Jurassic World
– Jennifer Lawrence, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay- Part 2
– Charlize Theron, Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Comedy
– The Big Short
– Inside Out
– Joy
– Sisters
– Spy
– Trainwreck

Best Actor in a Comedy
– Christian Bale, The Big Short
– Steve Carell, The Big Short
– Robert De Niro, The Intern
– Bill Hader, Trainwreck
– Jason Statham, Spy

Best Actress in a Comedy
– Tina Fey, Sisters
– Jennifer Lawrence, Joy
– Melissa McCarthy, Spy
– Amy Schumer, Trainwreck
– Lily Tomlin, Grandma

Best Sci-Fi/Horror Movie
– Ex Machina
– It Follows
– Jurassic World
– Mad Max: Fury Road
– The Martian

Best Foreign Language Film
– The Assassin (China)
– Goodnight Mommy (Germany)
– Mustang (France)
– The Second Mother (Brazil)
– Son Of Saul (Hungary)

Best Documentary Feature
– Amy
– Cartel Land
– Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief
– He Named Me Malala
– The Look of Silence
– Where To Invade Next

Best Song
– “Love Me Like You Do”, 50 Shades of Grey
– “See You Again”, Furious 7
– “Til It Happens To You”, The Hunting Ground
– “One Kind Of Love”, Love & Mercy
– “Writing’s On The Wall”, Spectre
– “Simple Song #3”, Youth

Best Score
– Carol (Carter Burwell)
– The Hateful Eight (Ennio Morricone)
– The Revenant (Ryuichi Sakamoto and Alva Noto)
– Sicario (Johann Johannsson)
– Spotlight (Howard Shore)

(To see a full list that also includes Television categories, click here.)