And this year a record number of Australians will be in the running for an Oscar. Cate Blanchett has been nominated for best actress for Carol, and the Fury Road team has multiple nominees in the technical categories, as well as nominations for Best Picture (George Miller and Doug Mitchell), Best Directing (George Miller), Best Editing (Margaret Sixel) and Best Cinematography (John Seale).

In total, thirteen Australians have been nominated for Academy Awards this year (see below for a full list).

There are eight films in contention for best picture. The Revenant, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Big Short, Bridge of Spies, Brooklyn, The Martian, Room and Spotlight.

The Academy chose to leave out box-office record setter Star Wars: The Force Awakens and the critically acclaimed Straight Outta Compton.

It is in the acting categories that The Revenant took the lead over Mad Max: Fury Road. Leonardo DiCaprio was nominated for best actor for The Revenant. It is his sixth nomination, but he is winless so far. His co-star, Tom Hardy, was nominated for best supporting actor.

It is Blanchett's seventh nod; she has already won two Oscars.

The nominations were announced on Thursday morning, Los Angeles time.

The awards will be presented on Sunday February 28 (Monday February 29 Australian time), in a ceremony hosted by Chris Rock.

These thirteen Australians are up for Academy Awards:

Best Actress: Cate Blanchett for Carol

Plus these nominees for Mad Max: Fury Road:

Best Picture: George Miller and Doug Mitchell

Best Director: George Miller

Cinematography: John Seale

Editing: Margaret Sixel

Hair & Makeup: Damian Martin, Lesley Vanderwalt, Elka Wardega

Production Design: Colin Gibson, Lisa Thompson

Visual Effects: Dan Oliver

Sound Mixing: Ben Osmi

Sound Editing: David White

The nominees for the 2016 Academy Awards are:

Best Picture

The Big Short

Bridge of Spies

Brooklyn

Mad Max: Fury Road

The Martian

The Revenant

Room

Spotlight

Best Actor

Bryan Cranston, Trumbo

Matt Damon, The Martian

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

Best Supporting Actor

Christian Bale, The Big Short

Tom Hardy, The Revenant

Mark Ruffalo, Spotlight

Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies

Sylvester Stallone, Creed

Best Supporting Actress

Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Hateful Eight

Rooney Mara, Carol

Rachel McAdams, Spotlight

Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl

Kate Winslet, Steve Jobs

Best Director

Adam McKay, The Big Short

George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road

Alejandro G. Iñárritu, The Revenant

Lenny Abrahamson, Room

Spotlight, Tom McCarthy

Best Adapted Screenplay

The Big Short, Charles Randolph and Adam McKay

Brooklyn. Nick Hornby

Carol, Phyllis Nagy

The Martian, Drew Goddard

Original Screenplay

Bridge of Spies, Matt Charman and Ethan Coen & Joel Coen

Ex Machina, Alex Garland

Inside Out, screenplay by Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve, Josh Cooley; original story by Pete Docter, Ronnie del Carmen

Spotlight, Josh Singer & Tom McCarthy

Straight Outta Compton, screenplay by Jonathan Herman and Andrea Berloff; story by S. Leigh Savidge & Alan Wenkus and Andrea Berloff

Best Animated Feature

Anomalisa, Charlie Kaufman, Duke Johnson and Rosa Tran

Boy and the World, Alê Abreu

Inside Out, Pete Docter and Jonas Rivera

Shaun the Sheep Movie, Mark Burton and Richard Starzak

When Marnie Was There, Hiromasa Yonebayashi and Yoshiaki Nishimura

Best Documentary Feature

Amy, Asif Kapadia and James Gay-Rees

Cartel Land, Matthew Heineman and Tom Yellin

The Look of Silence, Joshua Oppenheimer and Signe Byrge Sørensen

What Happened, Miss Simone?, Liz Garbus, Amy Hobby and Justin Wilkes

Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom, Evgeny Afineevsky and Den Tolmor

Best Foreign Language film

Embrace of the Serpent, Colombia

Mustang, France

Son of Saul, Hungary

Theeb, Jordan

A War, Denmark

Best Cinematography

Carol, Ed Lachman

The Hateful Eight, Robert Richardson

Mad Max: Fury Road, John Seale

The Revenant, Emmanuel Lubezki

Sicario, Roger Deakins

Best Original Score

Bridge of Spies, Thomas Newman

Carol, Carter Burwell

The Hateful Eight, Ennio Morricone

Sicario, Jóhann Jóhannsson

Star Wars: The Force Awakens, John Williams

Best Original Song

Earned It from Fifty Shades of Grey

Manta Ray from Racing Extinction

Simple Song #3 from Youth

Til It Happens To You from The Hunting Ground

"Writing's On The Wall" from Spectre

Best Visual Effects

Ex Machina, Andrew Whitehurst, Paul Norris, Mark Ardington and Sara Bennett

Mad Max: Fury Road, Andrew Jackson, Tom Wood, Dan Oliver and Andy Williams

The Martian, Richard Stammers, Anders Langlands, Chris Lawrence and Steven Warner

The Revenant, Rich McBride, Matthew Shumway, Jason Smith and Cameron Waldbauer

Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Neal Scanlan and Chris Corbould

Click here for a complete list of Academy Award nominees.

- With Daniel Fallon