Oscar nominations take 'Shape' for 2018
Posted Tuesday, January 23, 2018 at 11:16 AM Central
Last updated Tuesday, January 23, 2018 at 11:20 AM Central
by John Couture
What's the old saying? "It's just an honor to be nominated." Well, for The Shape of Water, they got to feel that honor 13 times, almost twice as many as any other film when the nominations for the 90th Annual Academy Awards were announced this morning.
The awards season has shaped up to be a showdown between The Shape of Water and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri with the latter film winning the acting awards in a convincing fashion leading up to today's nominations for the granddaddy of all the awards shows, The Oscars. But, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri only managed to score six nominations, so does that mean that we should crown The Shape of Water the winner?
Not so fast. While yes, it's true that films that pile up Oscar nominations tend to perform well at the Oscars overall, this year is anything but your typical year in Hollywood. The impact of the "Time's Up" and "Me Too" movements has already been felt with the pretty sizable omission of Golden Globe winner James Franco from the Best Actor category. Before the Globes announcement and the subsequent fallout from alleged allegations of sexual misconduct by the actor following his win, Franco was considered by many experts to be a near-lock for a nomination for his performance in The Disaster Artist.
Another unlikely development was the Best Supporting Actor nomination for Christopher Plummer for his work in All the Money in the World. As you may recall Plummer replaced Kevin Spacey in the project after filming was complete when the latter actor also came under fire various indiscretions in his past. Plummer reshot all of Spacey's scenes over 10 days and the rest is history.
This year's nominations included several firsts including Rachel Morrison's nomination for Best Cinematography for her work on Mudbound. Rachel is the first woman to ever be nominated for the Oscar in this category. Also, I haven't fully researched this, but I do believe that Kobe Bryant's nomination for Best Animated Short Film (Dear Basketball) is the first time that a former basketball player has secured an Oscar nomination. I'm pretty sure that Shaquille O'Neal didn't get one for Kazaam.
This year's awards show should be wide open. I fully expect both The Shape of Water and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri to bring home multiple Oscars with Dunkirk scoring wins in the technical categories. I wouldn't be shocked to see a surprise or two either. The 90th Annual Academy Awards will handed out live on March 4 and with last year's debacle during the Best Picture category, the show promises to be must-see TV all the way until the end.
The full nominations are listed below. I went ahead and marked my first impression guesses as to who will win, take that for what you will. Just a reminder that I did very poorly when I tried to predict the Golden Globes this year.
Best Picture
- Call Me By Your Name
- Lady Bird
- Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
- Darkest Hour
- Phantom Thread
- Dunkirk
- The Post
- Get Out
- OUR PICK - The Shape of Water
Actor In A Leading Role
- Timothee Chalamet, Call Me By Your Name
- Daniel Day-Lewis, Phantom Thread
- Daniel Kaluuya, Get Out
- OUR PICK - Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour
- Denzel Washington, Roman J. Israel, Esq.
Actress In A Leading Role
- Sally Hawkins, The Shape of Water
- OUR PICK - Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
- Margot Robbie, I, Tonya
- Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird
- Meryl Streep, The Post
Actor In A Supporting Role
- Willem Dafoe, The Florida Project
- Woody Harrelson, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
- OUR PICK - Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
- Richard Jenkins, The Shape of Water
- Christopher Plummer, All the Money in the World
Actress In A Supporting Role
- Mary J. Blige, Mudbound
- OUR PICK - Allison Janney, I, Tonya
- Lesley Manville, Phantom Thread
- Laurie Metcalf, Lady Bird
- Octavia Spencer, The Shape of Water
Directing
- Christopher Nolan, Dunkirk
- Jordan Peele, Get Out
- Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird
- Paul Thomas Anderson, Phantom Thread
- OUR PICK - Guillermo del Toro, The Shape of Water
Original Screenplay
- Kumail Nanjiani, Emily V. Gordon, The Big Sick
- Jordan Peele, Get Out
- OUR PICK - Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird
- Vanessa Taylor, Guillermo del Toro, The Shape of Water
- Martin McDonagh, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Adapted Screenplay
- James Ivory, Call Me By Your Name
- OUR PICK - Michael H. Weber, Scott Neustadter, The Disaster Artist
- Scott Frank, James Mangold and Michael Green, Logan
- Virgil Williams, Dee Rees, Mudbound
- Aaron Sorkin, Molly's Game
Animated Feature Film
- The Boss Baby
- The Breadwinner
- OUR PICK - Coco
- Ferdinand
- Loving Vincent
Art Direction
Cinematography
Costume Design
Documentary Feature
- Abacus: Small Enough to Jail
- OUR PICK - Faces Places
- Icarus
- Last Men in Aleppo
- Strong Island
Documentary Short Subject
- Edith+Eddie
- OUR PICK - Heaven Is a Traffic Jam on the 405
- Heroin(e)
- Knife Skills
- Traffic Stop
Film Editing
- Baby Driver
- OUR PICK - Dunkirk
- I, Tonya
- The Shape of Water
- Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Foreign Language Film
- A Fantastic Woman
- The Insult
- Loveless
- On Body and Soul
- OUR PICK - The Square
Makeup
- OUR PICK - Darkest Hour
- Victoria & Abdul
- Wonder
Music (Original Score)
- Hans Zimmer, Dunkirk
- Jonny Greenwood, Phantom Thread
- OUR PICK - Alexandre Desplat, The Shape of Water
- John Williams, Star Wars: The Last Jedi
- Carter Burwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Music (Original Song)
- 'Mighty River', Mudbound
- 'Mystery of Love', Call Me By Your Name
- 'Remember Me', Coco
- 'Stand Up for Something', Marshall
- OUR PICK - 'This is Me', The Greatest Showman
Short Film (Animated)
- Dear Basketball
- Garden Party
- OUR PICK - Lou
- Negative Space
- Revolting Rhymes
Short Film (Live Action)
- OUR PICK - DeKalb Elementary
- My Nephew Emmett
- The Eleven O'Clock
- The Silent Child
- Watu Wote / All of Us