Jessica Chastain Baffled By Oscar 'Formula'

Actress Jessica Chastain has told Sky News she doesn't understand how films are ruled worthy of an Oscar nomination.

The American star has been nominated twice for an Academy Award, once in 2012 for her role in The Help and again in 2013 for Zero Dark Thirty.

This year, the 37-year-old was nominated for a Golden Globe for her role in A Most Violent Year, a crime drama in which she stars alongside her old drama school friend Oscar Isaac.

However, she and the film have been overlooked by the Academy ahead of the awards in February.

"To me, that whole thing is a formula I don't understand," she said.

This year's Oscar nominations have faced a huge amount of criticism, mainly to do with the lack of diversity.

All 20 of 2015's acting contenders are white and there are no women in the directing or writing categories.

Chastain used her acceptance speech at the 2015 Critics' Choice Awards to appeal to others in the industry for diversity in Hollywood, hours after the Oscar nominees were announced.

"Today is Martin Luther King, Junior's birthday," Chastain noted.

"So, it got me thinking about our need to build the strength of diversity in our industry."

Speaking about A Most Violent Year, she said: "It's on all the best critics list and it's really exciting. It's one of the best reviewed films in the United States which is pretty great."

The film is set in New York City during the winter of 1981, statistically the most dangerous year in the city's history.

Writer and director JC Chandor cast the actress in a heartbeat to play the Brooklyn-bred wife of a Latin American immigrant who is trying to run a business legitimately but finds the ladder to success is a crooked one.

Chastain put Isaac, who was just about to have his big career breakthrough with Inside Llewyn Davis, forward for the role.

She told Sky News: "Well to be honest I think I did JC a great service especially after being on set and seeing Oscar's performance. He's so good in this.

"He and I went to college together, we've known each other for over 13 years.

"We went to each other's film premieres as we were starting out, we'd always meet and have dinner and talk about what was going on in our lives and talk about our desire to want to work together.

"This was a situation where it was just so perfectly laid out."

A Most Violent Year is in UK cinemas from 23 January.