On the morning of January 16, 2016, the nominations for the 88th Academy Awards were announced. Alejandro G. Iñárritu seems to be repeating last year’s success this year with his latest film "The Revenant." His 2014 hit "Birdman" or ("The Unexpected Virtue of Innocence") took home nine nominations and four wins The Revenant has been nominated for 12 awards, including Best Picture for Iñárritu and Best Actor for notorious Oscar-seeker Leonardo DiCaprio. George Miller’s "Mad Max: Fury Road," the follow-up to the very successful film series from the late 70s to mid-80s, has been nominated for 10 awards including Best Picture.

Steven Spielberg’s "Bridge of Spies" surprised with six nominations including Best Picture after receiving only one nomination at the Golden Globes (Mark Rylance was nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture). Jennifer Lawrence also stirred up some news when she was nominated for Best Actress for the fourth time at only the age of 25, a record. While her now-nominated role in David O. Russell’s "Joy" was met with mixed reviews, she managed to take home a Golden Globe for Best Actress and possibly another at the Oscars next month.

The most controversial aspect of this year’s Academy Award nominees is the criminally small amount of non-white nominees—something that has become unfortunately expected from the Academy each year. According to a recent "Los Angeles Times" survey of over 6,000 Academy voters, 76 percent are males over the age of 63 and 94 percent are white. Many are calling for a more diverse group in order to avoid repeats of such non-diverse nominees.

Actors like Will Smith (whose role in "Concussion" earned him a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor), Idris Elba ("Beasts of No Nation"), and Tessa Thompson ("Creed"), as well as directors like F. Gary Gray ("Straight Outta Compton"), Ryan Coogler ("Creed"), and Cary Fukunaga ("Beasts of No Nation") were rumored to be nominated for their exceptional work but all came up empty handed.

Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs addressed the issue in a statement to Deadline after the nominations were announced on January 16.

“Of course, I am disappointed,” Isaacs told "Deadline." “But this is not to take away the greatness (of the films nominated). This has been a great year in film, it really has across the board.”

Isaacs went on to say that The Academy has nothing to do with hiring in Hollywood and encouraged filmmakers to hire more diverse casts, which would ideally lead to more diverse nominees.

The Academy Awards air on February 28 at 6:00 pm on ABC.