- Adam McKay, The Big Short
- George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road
- Alejandro González Iñárritu, The Revenant
- Lenny Abrhamson, Room
- Tom McCarthy, Spotlight
- The Big Short, Hank Corwin
- Mad Max: Fury Road, Margaret Sixel
- The Revenant, Stephen Mirrione
- Spotlight, Tom McArdle
- Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Maryann Brandon and Mary Jo Markey
- Colombia, Embrace of the Serpent
- Francia, Mustang
- Hungría, Son of Saul
- Jordania, Theeb
- Dinamarca, A War
- Thomas Newman, Bridge of Spies
- Carter Burwell, Carol
- Ennio Morricone, The Hateful Eight
- Jóhann Jóhannsson, Sicario
- John Williams, Star Wars: The Force Awakens
- Bridge of Spies, Production Design: Adam Stockhausen; Set Decoration: Rena DeAngelo and Bernhard Henrich
- The Danish Girl, Production Design: Eve Stewart; Set Decoration: Michael Standish
- Mad Max: Fury Road, Production Design: Colin Gibson; Set Decoration: Lisa Thompson
- The Martian, Production Design: Arthur Max; Set Decoration: Celia Bobak
- The Revenant, Production Design: Jack Fisk; Set Decoration: Hamish Purdy
- 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
- The Big Short, Charles Randolph and Adam McKay
- Brooklyn, Nick Hornby
- Carol, Phyllis Nagy
- The Martian, Drew Goddard
- Room, Emma Donoghue
- Carol, Sandy Powell
- Cinderella, Sandy Powell
- The Danish Girl, Paco Delgado
- Mad Max: Fury Road, Jenny Beavan
- The Revenant, Jacqueline West
- Mad Max: Fury Road, Lesley Vanderwalt, Elka Wardega and Damian Martin
- The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, Love Larson and Eva von Bahr
- The Revenant, Siân Grigg, Duncan Jarman and Robert Pandini
- Carol, Ed Lachman
- The Hateful Eight, Robert Richardson
- Mad Max: Fury Road, John Seale
- The Revenant, Emmanuel Lubezki
- Sicario, Roger Deakins
- “Earned It,” Fifty Shades of Grey, Abel Tesfaye, Ahmad Balshe, Jason Daheala Quenneville and Stephan Moccio
- “Manta Ray,” Racing Extinction, J. Ralph and Antony Hegarty
- “Simple Song #3,” Youth, David Lang
- “‘Til It Happens to You,” The Haunting Ground, Diane Warren and Lady Gaga
- “Writings on the Wall,” Spectre, Jimmy Napes and Sam Smith
- Bridge of Spies, Andy Nelson, Gary Rydstrom and Drew Kunin
- Mad Max: Fury Road, Chris Jenkins, Gregg Rudloff and Ben Osmo
- The Martian, Paul Massey, Mark Taylor and Mac Ruth
- The Revenant, Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño, Randy Thom and Chris Duesterdiek
- Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Andy Nelson, Christopher Scarabosio and Stuart Wilson
- Body Team 12, David Darg and Bryn Mooser
- Chau, Beyond the Lines, Courtney Marsh and Jerry Franck
- Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah, Adam Benzine
- A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
- Last Day of Freedom, Dee Hibbert-Jones and Nomi Talisman
- Bridge of Spies, Matt Charman and Ethan Coen & Joel Coen
- Ex Machina, Alex Garland
- Inside Out, Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve, Josh Cooley; Original story by Pete Docter, Ronnie del Carmen
- Spotlight, Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy
- Straight Outta Compton, Screenplay by Jonathan Herman and Andrea Berloff; Story by S. Leigh Savidge, Alan Wenkus and Andrea Berloff
- 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
- Mad Max: Fury Road, Mark Mangini and David White
- The Martian, Oliver Tarney
- The Revenant, Martin Hernandez and Lon Bender
- Sicario, Alan Robert Murray
- Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Matthew Wood and David Acord
- Bear Story, Gabriel Osorio and Pato Escala
- Prologue, Richard Williams and Imogen Sutton
- Sanjay’s Super Team, Sanjay Patel and Nicole Grindle
- We Can’t Live Without Cosmos, Konstantin Bronzit
- World of Tomorrow, Don Hertzfeldt
- Ave Maria, Basil Khalil and Eric Dupont
- Day One, Henry Hughes
- Everything Will Be Okay (Alles Wird Gut), Patrick Vollrath
- Shok, Jamie Donoughue
- Stutterer, Benjamin Cleary and Serena Armitage
- 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
- “Earned It,” Fifty Shades of Grey, Abel Tesfaye, Ahmad Balshe, Jason Daheala Quenneville and Stephan Moccio
- “Manta Ray,” Racing Extinction, J. Ralph and Antony Hegarty
- “Simple Song #3,” Youth, David Lang
- “‘Til It Happens to You,” The Haunting Ground, Diane Warren and Lady Gaga
- “Writings on the Wall,” Spectre, Jimmy Napes and Sam Smith