This morning, the nominations for the 88th Academy Awards were announced. The area of most controversy is for the second year in a row, not a single performance by an African-American actor was recognized; this, I’m sure will give Oscar host Chris Rock a lot of material to deal with. Anyway, here are the good, the bad, and the ugly from this years Oscar nods.

THE GOOD:

Two science fiction nominees for Best Picture (“The Martian” and “Mad Max: Fury Road”) for the first time since “Avatar” and “District 9” in 2009. Not to mention the overwhelming support for “Fury Road,” with 10 nominations total. Glad to see the academy branching out a bit.

No Best Picture nods for “Carol” and “Straight Outta Compton,” two of the most overrated films of the year.

Lenny Abrahamson was nominated for Best Director for the film, “Room,” my personal favorite film of 2015.

THE BAD: 

Not a single African-American performance was singled out, making another bad year of publicity for the Academy. Performances from Samuel L. Jackson and Abraham Attah were standouts for me.

The academy allowed Rooney Mara and Alicia Vikander to run in the Supporting Actress category, when they were obviously lead performances.

Some of the best performances of the year came from the Supporting Actor category, and of the several names omitted were: Jacob Tremblay (“Room”), Michael Shannon (“99 Homes”), and Paul Dano (“Love & Mercy”)

THE UGLY: 

Aaron Sorkin was robbed of a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination for his epic biopic, “Steve Jobs.”

Ridley Scott was arguably the early frontrunner to win Best Director for “The Martian.” I guess the academy just hates him…same with Ben Affleck.

Another year with a mere eight nominees in the Best Picture category; enough with these obscure numbers and make it five nominees again.