The biggest winner of the night was The Shape of Water, with four Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Production Design and Best Original Score, followed by Dunkirk with three Oscars for Best Film Editing, Best Sound Mixing and Best Sound Editing. As usual, the Oscars ceremony lasted more than 3.5 hours in what was a largely pedestrian if sometimes awkwardly amusing affair hosted by Jimmy Kimmel.
But there were some highlights such as the Oscar win for Kobe Bryant for Best Animated Short, showing that you could do sports and win the golden man as well. Kimmel also led a group of stars including Gal Gadot, Mark Hamill, Margot Robbie, Armie Hammer and many more, to pay a surprise visit (with candy and hotdogs in tow!) to a theatre of moviegoers, all beamed live.
The most notable highlight is no doubt getting winners to shorten their speeches by dangling a carrot in front of them: the shortest speech gets a free jet ski (paraded by Helen Mirren as if she was Vanna White from Wheel of Fortune), which was eventually won by Mark Bridges for Best Costume Design for “Phantom Thread”, whose speech lasted no more than 40 seconds.
Here are some other highlights of the Oscar winners:
Best Picture
Call Me By Your Name
Darkest Hour
Dunkirk
Get Out
Lady Bird
Phantom Thread
The Post
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
The Shape of Water- Winner
While many expected Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri to take home the top honour, The Shape of Water swooped in and took the top prize. This is just about the only unforeseen result of the night, viva Mexico!
Best Director
Christopher Nolan, Dunkirk
Jordan Peele, Get Out
Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird
Paul Thomas Anderson, Phantom Thread
Guillermo del Toro, The Shape of Water- Winner
There was no surprise here as Mexican director Guillermo del Toro had been the frontrunner for Best Director for the last couple of months, including key wins at the Golden Globes, BAFTAs (British Academy) and DGA (Directors Guild of America). A notable challenger was Christopher Nolan, who was a strong dark horse, and should have won for a visionary film that pushed many boundaries, including storytelling, sound design and technical craft.
Best Actor
Timothee Chalamet, Call Me By Your Name
Daniel Day-Lewis, Phantom Thread
Daniel Kaluuya, Get Out
Denzel Washington, Roman J. Isreal, Esq
Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour – Winner
No surprises in all the acting categories. If Daniel Day-Lewis had not won his third Oscar for Lincoln in 2013, and in light of his retirement announcement, it could have been a nail-biter. But Gary Oldman deserved his due in a rare instance that an Oscar was not just given to the best performance of the lot, but to arguably Oldman’s finest performance in an esteemed career.
Best Actress
Sally Hawkins, The Shape of Water
Margot Robbie, I, Tonya
Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird
Meryl Streep, The Post
Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri- Winner
Frances McDormand was also a strong frontrunner in the awards circuit, and despite the love for The Shape of Water, dark horse Sally Hawkins did not manage to one-up the seasoned veteran whose fierce and powerful performance is certainly more eye-catching.
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- Winner
Sam Rockwell had the edge for supporting actor, with Willem Dafoe (The Florida Project) as the dark horse in a more nuanced performance.Rockwell’s character arc in Three Billboards, backed by a full-throttle, scene-stealing performance served him well.
Best Supporting Actress
Mary J. Blige, Mudbound
Octavia Spencer, The Shape of Water
Laurie Metcalf, Lady Bird
Lesley Manville, Phantom Thread
Allison Janney, I, Tonya- Winner
For supporting actress, it was a two-way fight between television veterans Allison Janney and Laurie Metcalf, with Janney the frontrunner. Once again, the showier performance triumphed the more nuanced one.
Best Adapted Screenplay
The Disaster Artist
Logan
Molly’s Game
Mudbound
Call Me By Your Name- Winner
The adapted screenplay category win for James Ivory was almost like a lifetime achievement award for this great director of A Room with a View and Howards End. At 89 years of age, Ivory’s gift of sensitivity spoke to the hearts of everyone who ever felt the feelings of first love.
Original Screenplay
The Big Sick
Lady Bird
The Shape of Water
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Get Out -Winner
The original screenplay category was, however, much more competitive, whose Oscar deservingly ended up in Jordan Peele’s hands, in a strong message that racially-diverse forms of storytelling remain essential in an increasingly intolerant world.
Animated Feature
The Boss Baby
The Breadwinner
Ferdinand
Loving Vincent
Coco – Winner
You could have bet your house on the Pixar movie (an excellent one though) and won’t have sleepless nights. A foregone conclusion, which begs the question: would a less mainstream animated film like Loving Vincent or The Breadwinner ever have a fair chance to win?
Sound Editing
Baby Driver
Blade Runner 2049
The Shape of Water
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Dunkirk- Winner
Film Editing
Baby Driver
I, Tonya
The Shape of Water
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Dunkirk- Winner
Cinematography:
Darkest Hour
Dunkirk
Mudbound
The Shape of Water
Blade Runner 2049- Winner
A straightforward affair in the sound categories with Dunkirk nabbing sound editing in what was one of the most innovative and truly spectacular sound-designed films in recent memory. Dunkirk also deservedly won film editing for Lee Smith (a long-time collaborator with Christopher Nolan) who created unbearable suspense while maintaining narrative clarity with three converging (then diverging) timelines. But the most important award was given to Roger Deakins, one of the greatest and most respected cinematographers working today, who finally won an Oscar after being nominated 13 times prior to this.
Costume Design
Beauty and the Beast
Darkest Hour
The Shape of Water
Victoria and Abdul
Phantom Thread- Winner
It would have been fairly ironic if a film with a lead character who is a respected if eccentric dressmaker did not win this category. A deserving award for an exquisite and elegant film.
Here are the winners of other categories:
Original Song:
Mighty River from Mudbound
Mystery of Love from Call Me by Your Name
Stand Up for Something from Marshall
This Is Me from The Greatest Showman
Remember Me from Coco- Winner
Original Score:
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Dunkirk
Phantom Thread
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
The Shape of Water- Winner
Foreign Language Film
The Insult (Lebanon)
Loveless (Russia)
On Body and Soul (Hungary)
The Square” (Sweden)
A Fantastic Woman (Chile) - Winner
Production Design
Beauty and the Beast
Blade Runner 2049
Darkest Hour
Dunkirk
The Shape of Water- Winner
Makeup and Hairstyling:
Victoria and Abdul
Wonder
Darkest Hour- Winner
