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Deciphering the 2018 Oscar Nominations

Kam Williams
Buzz

The Shape of Water Leads Race with Lucky 13 Nominations: Weinstein, Spacey and Franco Conspicuously Absent

  The Shape of Water, Guillermo del Toro’s surreal, cross-species love story landed the most Academy Award nominations (13), including for Best Director, Picture and Original Screenplay, as well as trio of acting categories. Dunkirk (8) was next, followed by Three Billboards (7), Darkest Hour (6) and Phantom Thread (6).

  Up for Oscars are some familiar faces, like Denzel Washington (Roman J. Israel, Jr.) and perennial-nominee Meryl Streep (The Post). Meanwhile, conspicuously absent from the roster are a number of disgraced Hollywood icons whose careers went up in flames in the wake of rape allegations.

  There’s Harvey Weinstein who, for years, had been a fixture on the aisle on Oscar night. But this go-round, The Weinstein Company’s entire slate was snubbed, most notably, the critically-acclaimed and strategically-released Wind River.

  Just a couple weeks ago, James Franco was the toast of Tinseltown after winning a Golden Globe for The Disaster Artist. Since then, several women stepped forward to accuse him of sexual misconduct. Now, it’s his career that’s a disaster, suffering such a precipitous fall from grace that he didn’t even earn an Academy Award nomination.

  The voters showed little love to Baby Driver, this critic’s pick for No. 1 film of the year, giving it only a handful of nominations in technical categories. In this case, you can blame #MeToo casualty Kevin Spacey for torpedoing the summer sleeper’s Oscar chances right along with his own.

  At least that picture got released. The same can’t be said for Louis C.K.’s, I Love You, Daddy, whose premiere was postponed indefinitely after he admitted to some pretty bizarre, unwanted behavior in front of five different women.

  For those still in the running, the 90th Academy Awards will air on ABC on Sunday, Mar. 4. The show will be staged at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel. But don’t surprised if one or two nominees get knocked out of contention for sexual peccadilloes that come to the surface between now and Oscar night.

 

Complete List of 2018 Academy Award Nominees

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

 

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

  • Timothée Chalamet, Call Me by Your Name
  • Daniel Day-Lewis, Phantom Thread
  • Daniel Kaluuya, Get Out
  • Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour
  • Denzel Washington, Roman J. Israel, Esq.

 

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

  • 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

 

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

  • 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

 

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

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

 

BEST DIRECTOR

  • Dunkirk, Christopher Nolan
  • Get Out, Jordan Peele
  • Lady Bird, Greta Gerwig
  • Phantom Thread, Paul Thomas Anderson
  • The Shape of Water, Guillermo del Toro

 

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

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

 

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

  • Abacus: Small Enough to Jail
  • Faces, Places
  • Icarus
  • Last Men In Aleppo
  • Strong Island

 

DOCUMENTARY SHORT

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

 

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

  • A Fantastic Woman, Chile
  • The Insult, Lebanon
  • Loveless, Russia
  • On Body and Soul, Hungary
  • The Square, Sweden

 

WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)

  • Call Me by Your Name
  • The Disaster Artist
  • Logan
  • Molly‘s Game
  • Mudbound

 

WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)

  • The Big Sick
  • Get Out
  • Ladybird
  • The Shape of Water
  • Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

 

ORIGINAL SONG

  • “Mighty River,” Mudbound
  • “Mystery of Love,” Call Me by Your Name
  • “Remember Me,” Coco
  • “Stand Up for Something,” Marshall
  • “This is Me,” The Greatest Showman

 

PRODUCTION DESIGN

  • Beauty and the Beast
  • Blade Runner 2049
  • The Darkest Hour
  • Dunkirk
  • The Shape of Water

 

CINEMATOGRAPHY

  • Blade Runner 2049
  • Darkest Hour
  • Dunkirk
  • Mudbound
  • The Shape of Water

 

COSTUME DESIGN

  • Beauty and the Beast
  • Darkest Hour
  • Phantom Thread
  • The Shape of Water
  • Victoria & Abdul

 

SOUND EDITING

  • Baby Driver
  • Blade Runner 2049
  • Dunkirk
  • The Shape of Water
  • Star Wars: The Last Jedi

 

SOUND MIXING

  • Baby Driver
  • Blade Runner 2049
  • Dunkirk
  • The Shape of Water
  • Star Wars: The Last Jedi

 

MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)

  • Dunkirk
  • Phantom Thread
  • The Shape of Water
  • Star Wars: The Last Jedi
  • Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

 

SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)

  • Dear Basketball
  • Garden Party
  • Negative Space
  • Lou
  • Revolting Rhymes

 

SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION)

  • DeKalb Elementary
  • The Eleven O‘Clock
  • The Silent Child
  • All of Us
  • My Nephew Emmet

 

VISUAL EFFECTS

  • Blade Runner 2049
  • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
  • Kong: Skull Island
  • Star Wars: The Last Jedi
  • War for the Planet of the Apes

 

FILM EDITING

  • Baby Driver
  • Dunkirk
  • I, Tonya
  • The Shape of Water
  • Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

 

MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING

  • Darkest Hour
  • Victoria & Abdul
  • Wonder