Hollywood held its breath today for the start of the 88th Academy Awards, the film world's annual Oscars gala that this year has been overshadowed by a public debate about race biases.

Among top nominees for cinema's most coveted prize are frontier survival epic 'The Revenant', with 12 nominations, and dystopian road movie 'Mad Max: Fury Road', with 10.

'The Revenant' is seen as one of three strong contenders in a race for best picture, along with journalism drama Spotlight and financial caper 'The Big Short'.

Other nominees for best picture are Cold War thriller 'Bridge of Spies', immigration tale 'Brooklyn', kidnap drama 'Room', space rescue comedy 'The Martian' and 'Mad Max: Fury Road'.

The nominees for best actress are Brie Larson (Room), Saoirse Ronan(Brooklyn), Cate Blanchett (Carol), Charlotte Rampling (45 Years) and Jennifer Lawrence (Joy).

Leonardo DiCaprio (The Revenant), Eddie Redmayne (The Danish Girl), Matt Damon (The Martian), Bryan Cranston (Trumbo) and Michael Fassbender (Steve Jobs) will compete for best actor.

Best supporting actress nominees are Rooney Mara (Carol), Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl), Jennifer Jason Leigh (The Hateful Eight), Rachel McAdams (Spotlight) and Kate Winslet (Steve Jobs).

The nominees for best supporting actor are Christian Bale (The Big Short), Sylvester Stallone (Creed), Mark Ruffalo (Spotlight), Tom Hardy (The Revenant) and Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies).

A public debate about race bias in Hollywood erupted after a few non-Caucasian artists were nominated for the awards, and none at all for acting prizes, for the second year running.

Several prominent African-American actors and directors announced they would skip the Oscars in protest, including Will and Jada Pinkett Smith and Spike Lee.

African-American comic Chris Rock will host the ceremony, and is expected to make the race controversy a theme of the event.

The Oscars are presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The Academy's approximately 6,200 voting members choose winners in 24 categories.

The ceremony at Los Angeles' Dolby Theatre will begin at 5.30pm on Sunday (9.30am on Monday in Malaysia). The US television network ABC will broadcast the event.

- dpa