ANNOUNCEMENT: The 2018 Oscar nominations! (and some thoughts)

 

They tried something different early this morning during the announcement of the Oscar nominations. Tiffany Haddish and Andy Serkis were on hand at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Los Angeles to host a two-part global live stream, listing off all the technical categories first with snippets of unnecessary video introductions starring an all-female roster of talents: Gal Gadot, Salma Hayek, Rosario Dawson, Priyanka Chopra, Michelle Rodriguez, Zoe Saldana, Molly Shannon, Rebel Wilson, and Michelle Yeoh, and then taking minute-and-a-half break for the other categories. As expected, there were some verbal flubs and mispronunciations, as well as the inevitable surprises and snubs.

“The Shape of Water” is in the lead with 12 nominations total, including Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Actress, Supporting Actor, and Supporting Actor. Guillermo del Toro‘s mature fairy tale is clearly in the lead, as “Dunkirk” follows with 8 nominations, including a first-ever Best Director nomination for Christopher Nolan. The other nominees in the Director category saw some noticeable diversity with Greta Gerwig (“Lady Bird”) and Jordan Peele (“Get Out”). And despite some disappointing box office returns, “Blade Runner 2049” earned a well-deserved 5 Oscar nominations.

It’s great to see “Phantom Thread” getting some love and kind of surprising too since it was released so late in the year. The film’s writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson receiving a Director nomination for his exquisite film.

But, I am absolutely over the moon that my favorite film of the year, “Faces Places” earned itself a spot in the Documentary category. It’s such a wonderful, life-affirming film that deserves a wider audience.

Continuing its building presence in awards season, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” did well with 7 nominations in total, including Best Picture, yet it missed a Best Director nod for Martin McDonagh. He’s not the only one – director Luca Guadagnino (he did get his name butchered by Haddish though) did not receive a nomination as well for his superb work at the helm of  “Call Me By Your Name”, despite his film earning a Best Picture nom.

There were some surprises in the acting categories such as Leslie Manville, Octavia Spencer and Denzel Washington, which means that Spencer took the nomination that everyone was expecting Holly Hunter to receive for her work in “The Big Sick”.

Some other notable snubs in the acting categories was the absence of Armie Hammer for Best Supporting Actor in “Call Me by Your Name” and James Franco for Best Actor, who had won other awards for his work in “The Disaster Artist”. Could the sexual harassment allegations that surfaced against Franco in the last few days played a factor? Probably. Whatever happened, his absence found Denzel sliding in to his spot.

Those are just some quick thoughts. The full Oscar nominations list is below.

Jimmy Kimmel returns as host for the 90th Academy Awards, which air live on ABC on March 4th at 5pm PT/8pm ET.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM

• A Fantastic Woman
• The Insult
• Loveless
• On Body and Soul
• The Square

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT

• Edith and Eddie
• Heaven is a Traffic Jam on the 405
• Heroin(e)
• Knife Skills
• Traffic Stop

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

• Abacus
• Faces Places
• Icarus
• Last Man in Aleppo
• Strong Island

 

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

• The Boss Baby
• The Breadwinner
• Coco
• Ferdinand
• Loving Vincent

 

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

• James Ivory (Call Me By Your Name)
• Michael H. Weber and Scott Neustadter (The Disaster Artist)
• Aaron Sorkin (Molly’s Game)
• Dee Rees and Virgil Williams (Mudbound)
• James Mangold, Michael Green and Scott Frank (Logan)

 

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

• Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani (The Big Sick)
• Jordan Peele (Get Out)
• Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird)
• Guillermo del Toro and Vanessa Taylor (The Shape of Water)
• Martin McDonagh (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri)

 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

• Willem Dafoe (The Florida Project)
• Woody Harrelson (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri)
• Richard Jenkins (The Shape of Water)
• Christopher Plummer (All The Money in the World)
• Sam Rockwell (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri)

 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

• Mary J. Blige (Mudbound)
• Allison Janney (I, Tonya)
• Leslie Manville (Phantom Thread)
• Laurie Metcalf (Lady Bird)
• Octavia Spencer (The Shape of Water)

 

BEST ACTOR

• Timothee Chalamet (Call Me By Your Name)
• Daniel Day Lewis (Phantom Thread) 
• Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out) 
• Gary Oldman (Darkest Hour)
• Denzel Washington (Roman J. Esquire, Jr.)

 

BEST ACTRESS

• Sally Hawkins (The Shape of Water)
• Frances McDormand  (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri)
• Margot Robbie (I, Tonya)
• Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird) 
• Meryl Streep (The Post) 

 

BEST DIRECTOR

• Dunkirk
• Get Out
• Lady Bird
• Phantom Thread
• The Shape of Water

 

BEST PICTURE

• Call Me By Your Name
• Darkest Hour
• Dunkirk
• Get Out
• Lady Bird
• Phantom Thread
• The Post
• The Shape of Water
• Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri