Mad Max and Star Wars lead Empire Award nominations

Tom Hardy in Mad Max: Fury Road
Tom Hardy in Mad Max: Fury Road

Mad Max: Fury Road is leading the pack in the race for Empire Awards, with nominations in ten categories, including Best Film, Best Director and Best Actor for Tom Hardy.

Hardy’s nomination also takes account of his dual-performance as the Kray Twins in Legend, which is one of the films in the running for Best British Film, alongside 45 Years, SPECTRE, Suffragette and Macbeth.

The nominations for the awards – organised by Britain’s biggest selling film magazine – are nominated by members of the public, including Empire readers, who will also chose the winners.

British actor John Boyega was named BAFTA's Rising Star after his role in Special Effects winning Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Star Wars: The Force Awakens star John Boyega is nominated for Empire’s Best Male Newcomer award

The film in the running for the second highest number of awards is Star Wars: The Force Awakens, whose nine nominations include Best Male Newcomer for John Boyega, the star of 2011’s Attack the Block.

The Martian has six nominations and The Revenant has five, for the awards that recognise films released in the UK between the start of February 2015 and the end of this January.

Empire’s editor-in-chief Terri White said, “2015 was an absolutely cracking year for film” and praising the nominees, she said “I can’t wait to see who walks away with the Empire trophies on the night. It’d take a braver woman than me to bet against any of them.”

Coming a month after the end of the traditional Awards Season, the Empire Awards have little significance as a sign of where the top prizes in the industry might go, but they are indicative of what the cinema-going public actually like, rather than those films preferred by critics or industry insiders. Much as the box office charts do, these awards could be a more useful indicator to studios and producers what kind of films they should be making for their audiences.

And the full list of nominees for next month’s awards:

BEST FILM presented by Sky Movies

  • The Hateful Eight
  • Mad Max: Fury Road
  • The Martian
  • The Revenant
  • Star Wars: The Force Awakens

BEST BRITISH FILM presented by The Hollywood Reporter

  • 45 Years
  • Legend
  • Macbeth
  • Spectre
  • Suffragette

BEST ACTOR

  • Leonardo DiCaprio (The Revenant)
  • Matt Damon (The Martian)
  • Michael Fassbender (Macbeth/Steve Jobs)
  • Tom Hardy (Legend/Mad Max: Fury Road)
  • Michael B. Jordan (Creed)

BEST ACTRESS

  • Emily Blunt (Sicario)
  • Brie Larson (Room)
  • Jennifer Lawrence (The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2)
  • Charlize Theron (Mad Max: Fury Road)
  • Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl)

BEST MALE NEWCOMER

  • Abraham Attah (Beasts Of No Nation)
  • John Boyega (Star Wars: The Force Awakens)
  • Thomas Mann (Me And Earl And The Dying Girl)
  • Jason Mitchell (Straight Outta Compton)
  • Jacob Tremblay (Room)

BEST FEMALE NEWCOMER

  • Olivia Cooke (Me And Earl And The Dying Girl)
  • Rebecca Ferguson (Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation)
  • Maika Monroe (It Follows)
  • Bel Powley (The Diary Of A Teenage Girl)
  • Daisy Ridley (Star Wars: The Force Awakens)

BEST SCI-FI/FANTASY

  • The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2
  • Jurassic World
  • Mad Max: Fury Road
  • The Martian
  • Star Wars: The Force Awakens

BEST COMEDY presented by Absolute Radio

  • Ant-Man
  • Inside Out
  • Me And Earl And The Dying Girl
  • Spy
  • Trainwreck

BEST HORROR

  • Crimson Peak
  • The Hallow
  • Insidious: Chapter 3
  • It Follows
  • Krampus

BEST THRILLER presented by Corinthia Hotel London

  • Bridge Of Spies
  • The Gift
  • Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation
  • Sicario
  • Spectre

BEST DIRECTOR presented by Vue Entertainment

  • J. Abrams (Star Wars: The Force Awakens)
  • Ryan Coogler (Creed)
  • Alejandro González Iñárritu (The Revenant)
  • George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road)
  • Ridley Scott (The Martian)

BEST SCREENPLAY

  • The Big Short — Adam McKay, Charles Randolph
  • The Hateful Eight – Quentin Tarantino
  • Spotlight — Tom McCarthy, Josh Singer
  • Steve Jobs – Aaron Sorkin
  • Trainwreck — Amy Schumer

BEST ANIMATED FILM

  • Inside Out
  • Minions
  • Shaun The Sheep The Movie
  • Song Of The Sea
  • The Tale Of The Princess Kaguya

BEST DOCUMENTARY

  • Amy
  • Going Clear: Scientology And The Prison Of Belief
  • He Named Me Malala
  • The Jinx: The Life And Deaths Of Robert Durst
  • Making A Murderer

BEST SOUNDTRACK

  • The Hateful Eight
  • Mad Max: Fury Road
  • The Martian
  • Sicario
  • Straight Outta Compton

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

  • Carol
  • Cinderella
  • Crimson Peak
  • Mad Max: Fury Road
  • Star Wars: The Force Awakens

BEST MAKE-UP AND HAIRSTYLING

  • Crimson Peak
  • The Danish Girl
  • Mad Max: Fury Road
  • The Revenant
  • Star Wars: The Force Awakens

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

  • Ant-Man
  • Jurassic World
  • Mad Max: Fury Road
  • The Revenant
  • Star Wars: The Force Awakens

BEST SHORT FILM presented by Jameson Irish Whiskey

  • Kung Fury
  • Lava
  • Sanjay’s Super Team
  • Stutterer
  • World Of Tomorrow

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

  • Crimson Peak
  • The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2
  • Mad Max: Fury Road
  • The Martian
  • Star Wars: The Force Awakens

BEST TV SERIES

  • Marvel’s Daredevil
  • Fargo
  • Game Of Thrones
  • Marvel’s Jessica Jones
  • This Is England ’90

BEST GAME

  • Batman: Arkham Knight
  • Bloodborne
  • Fallout 4
  • Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
  • The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt