(UDHAYAM, CALIFORNIA) – The Academy announced that Brie Larson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Alicia Vikander and Mark Rylance have accepted invitations to this year’s ceremony. Last year saw DiCaprio win an Oscar for his role as frontiersman Hugh Glass in The Revenant having been nominated a previous four times, while Larson – nominated for the first time – won for her performance in Room.Vikander and Rylance won in the supporting categories for their work on Tom Hooper’s The Danish Girl and Steven Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies, respectively. This year’s key contenders include Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea), Denzel Washington and Viola Davis (Fences), Isabelle Huppert (Elle), Natalie Portman (Jackie), Emma Stone (La La Land), Mahershala Ali (Moonlight) and Michael Shannon (Nocturnal Animals).The ceremony, presented by Jimmy Kimmel, will take place on 26 February. Damien Chazelle’s musical love letter La La Land leads this year’s pack with 14 nominations, matching the record previously held by Titanic (1997) and All About Eve (1950). (Foreign Media reports)
